Potential Stories
by RaisingHeartSetUp
Summary: The first chapters of just a few of the many, many stories I've written, and which I also might or might not publish depending on the responses I get for the various chapters and whether or not I feel like publishing them or not. The story will be updated twice a week on Saturday and Sunday. Please review, because I'd really like to know what you think.
1. A Mage Magician Among Mutants

A Mage Magician Among Mutants  
Chapter One: We Learn How To Fly

_Ren_

It all started with a dream.

At least, that's what I would later tell my five best friends when looking back on it later.

I stood atop the radio tower in town, holding a pink staff topped with a bird's head in my hands. I wore a long sleeved off white dress that had yellow sleeve cuffs and a short yellow hemmed skirt over a pair of red denim pants. Completing the outfit was a pair of off white boots that were yellow at the top and a yellow hemmed white cape decorated with a red star at the bottom corners which was red on the inside. Beside me stood my family, consisting of my five best friends, Raph, Leo, Donnie, Mikey, Tyler and Master Splinter, and four girls I didn't recognize, two with black hair, one with brown hair, and another with sandy brown hair that wasn't quite blond but wasn't quite brown either well as a broad chested dark chocolate brown mare with a striking snow white mane and tail. I tossed a card up into the air and slammed the staff down onto it. Little wings sprouted from my boots. I jumped . . .

Only to wake up, cursing.

"Someone's in a bad mood." Mikey teased as he passed by my room (I got my own room because I was the only girl in the house).

I flipped him off. "Wouldn't _you_ be cursing too, if you had a dream that felt real and didn't make any sense? Besides, that's every night this week!"

"Ouch." He winced.

"So," I changed the subject. "Has Leo come back?"

Sighing, Mikey shook his head. "Not yet." He muttered dejectedly.

Leo's training period had ended around six months ago, but all communications from him had ceased. It was like he just dropped off the face of the earth or something. Normally, he found a way to get a message to us about every two days, but it had been half a year since anyone had heard from it, and we were really getting worried.

Not even Master Splinter had heard from him.

I sighed. "Damn. I hoped he would at least send Master Splinter a letter, or me," Despite the fact that they all were my best friends, Leo and I had been close ever since I ran headlong, distraught, through the portal that led me here, having been banished banished from my family for sticking up for my big brother, who didn't have any talent at the fire magic our clan was known for, who had also just been banished himself. "But I guess he's pulling a ghost act on us or something. Man I wish he would at least write to me or something."

"We all do, Ren, we all do." Donnie replied, likely having come to see what was taking me so long to get out of bed when I was usually one of the first.

Heaving another sigh, I hurried to get dressed and start my training.

Since I was a human, more or less, it was easier for me to move about above the sewers that we called home, which was why I was usually the one who did the shopping, using some money that one of the boys filched.

That, or I did a bit of wallet returning sans finder's fee.

What was wallet returning sans finder's fee? Basically, taking someone's wallet and giving it back, pretending they dropped it after taking all the cash in it.

Today, I was headed for the bookstore. I wanted to find some books with maps of the jungles where Leo was studying, because April had an assignment near there to find four statues that were nearly three thousand years old. It would take a while, but April promised that if she found Leo, she'd let me know so that I could tell everyone else. I knew he was studying in Central America, but I didn't know where he was beyond that.

When I got to the bookstore (after doing a bit of wallet returning sans finder's fee), the first thing I noticed was an unusual red and gold book. On the front of it was a horse's head.

Turning it over, I noticed that there was a magic circle symbol on the back instead of a synopsis.

Interesting. Was this somehow related to my dream last night?

The card that I had tossed up in the air was red and gold and had the same magic circle like symbol on the back of them that the book had on its back cover, so it was possible.

Looking at it, I noticed that it was called The Clow, although the words which I assumed were the title were printed in all capital letters.

"Odd." I muttered. "There's that weird picture on the front and then there's the lack of a synopsis as well as the magic circle on the back. What's up with this book?" I took it to the counter and asked how much it was, fishing out some of my . . . liberated . . . money.

The woman at the counter looked at the book and then looked at me. "Five bucks. It can't be worth any more. It's strange, though. I don't remember ever seeing this book here, and I've been here for a pretty long time."

I blinked and set the money down. "Well that is pretty weird." I walked out with the book and took it back to the lair after getting groceries. It was Mikey's turn to make dinner tonight and he had requested a few things from the store he needed. Mikey was without a doubt the best cook. I was okay, but at least I wasn't as bad as Leo. Whenever _Leo_ tried cooking, it either wound up exploding or burning, or some combination of the two, and it did so often that Master Splinter had forbidden him from trying to cook unless it was something simple.

Raph was a little better, as were Donnie and Tyler. Raph was too impatient to really be a great cook, though, and Donnie didn't really have the imagination to experiment and make things better as necessary. He worked best when following a specific set of instructions. Well, when it came to food anyway. Tyler was too prone to blowing things up to be a good cook.

Shaking myself out of my thoughts as I entered the store, I looked at my list, grabbed a basket, and then found the things Mikey needed.

After that, I returned home, making sure that no one could see me duck into the sewers.

Most people would probably be grossed out and revolted by the very idea of living in the sewers, but not me. While yes, I had lived above ground for the first eight years of my life, I was so used to living where I did that there were times when it felt like I had always lived here, away from the rules and limitations of the Kannagi family. It felt like I had always lived here and had always been free to practice my magic at my leisure and free to have fun and relax, rather than having to live up to a certain standard so that I didn't dishonor the _esteemed_ main family.

"I'm home!" I called when I entered the house.

"Welcome home, Ren." Master Splinter greeted. "How was your trip to the surface?"

"It was good. I found a really weird book, though. Oh, and Mikey, I got the stuff you needed from the store." I told him, handing over the bag.

"Thanks sis." Mikey said thankfully. "Alright, lunch time!"

"Let's see this 'really weird book' o' yours." Raph suggested.

I shrugged. "Okay." I brought out the book and showed it to him before I opened it. "Huh, well that's pretty weird. It's filled with cards."

"How interesting." Donnie commented. "Why would it be filled with cards rather than pages?"

"Beats me." I looked at them. "Weird names, too. First is the Windy, and then there's the Fiery." I grinned. "Sounds like my kind of card."

"And mine." Raph agreed.

I smirked. "Indeed, Raph-nii-san, indeed." However, I was interrupted by a sudden gust of wind which blew all of the cards away except the Fiery, which I had clutched tightly in my hand.

And then the mare from my dream appeared.

"Hello," She greeted, looking around. Her eyes came to rest on the empty book. "Were you the one who let the cards out of the book?" Her gaze swung towards me.

I hung my head. "Yes, I was." I admitted. "All I did was read the names of two of them and they all vanished. This one's the only one left." I showed her the Fiery.

She sighed. "Alright. But just so you know, you'll have to get them back because they easily have enough power to destroy this city and more. To start, however, I need you to go stand in that corner." She pointed with her muzzle to the nearest corner. "What's your name?"

I shrugged and did so. "Kannagi Ren."

"Key of the Seal, you have chosen this girl, Ren. I command you to bestow her with the language of the staff." The mare intoned. "O Key, grant her your power!"

A small key that looked a bit like the staff I saw in my dream floated up from the book, lengthening into a staff around half the length of the one in my dream. A bright light flashed, and I had to throw up an arm to cover my eyes.

"Damn it that's bright!" I cursed.

"Never mind that, grab the staff." The mare ordered.

"Fine." I grumbled, and somehow managed to struggle forward to grab the staff, which doubled in length until it was the staff from my dream.

"I, Icesong name you Cardcaptor!"

A while later, I sat above ground, Icesong under a Genjutsu, me holding a cell phone to my ear, pretending to speak to someone on it so that I didn't look like I was crazy and talking to myself, talking with Icesong about the cards. However, our talk was interrupted when a massive bird, bigger than anything I'd ever seen, swooped overhead.

I abruptly stood up. "Hey Icesong, is that what I think it is?"

"If you think it's a Clow Card," She responded. "Then yes."

"Great. How do I use the staff?"

"Focus." She instructed as we lured the card to a deserted area where no one would be around to witness what I was about to do. "I'll come to you."

The key dropped between my outstretched hands. "O Key of Clow, power of magic, power of light. Surrender the wand, the force ignite! Release!" The small key tumbled endlessly over itself before lengthening into the staff. I grabbed it and twirled it and slammed it down onto the Fiery card. "Fiery, wrap yourself around Fly's wings and force it to the ground, and above all, don't let it escape. Fiery, release and dispel!"

Fiery rose from her card, wrapping herself around Fly, forcing it to the ground.

"Now would be a good time to seal it." Icesong advised, keeping one eye on the Fly Card at all times. It was evident she thought it was about to break free any second now.

Nodding, I raised the staff and slammed it down onto a glowing card. "Return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!"

Fly was sucked into the glowing card. Slowly, the glow faded away and the card floated into my hand. Smiling, I wiped the sweat off my forehead I hadn't realized was there until a minute ago.

"Well done." Icesong praised. "You did very well."

I grinned. "Thanks. That was pretty intense, but I think I could get used to it."

"Good, because it's only going to get more intense from here." She told me. "But for now I think that you should experience one of the benefits of being the captor of the Clow Cards. Touch the staff to the Fly Card."

Raising an eyebrow, I did so.

To my great surprise, the tiny for decoration only wings enlarged into huge wings that could easily support flight. "Now _that_ is pretty damn cool." I admitted.

Icesong seemed to grin. "Care to go for a flight?"

"One little problem." I pointed out. "You can't fly."

"Au contraire, Ren." She smiled and began running, taking to the air soon after. "I can fly."

"Okay, I'm impressed." I decided and mounted the staff. Pushing off, I was in the air moments later. "I take back what I said before: _this_ is really cool."

"So," Icesong began. "Can I count on you to help me capture the cards so that they don't cause too much trouble and potentially destroy the city?"

I grinned. "Of course. And can I count on you to tell me what you know about the cards so that I can capture them more easily? I would rather not be left in the dark."

"I'll help you all I can." Icesong promised. "Because from this night on, the two of us are partners, and we'll learn to fly together."


	2. A Voice Stolen And Forever Silenced

A Voice Stolen And Forever Silenced  
Chapter One: The Talking Moon Marked Cat

_Serena_

The day I learned why the shadow silenced me started out pretty normally. I was doing my chores for Grandpa, singing to myself, and trying to distract myself so that I didn't remember what the day was, but I knew I couldn't. I could never forget what happened.

Exactly eight years ago, when I was six, a shadow broke into my family's home in the dead of night, when my parents were asleep. I was awake, because I _knew_ something was wrong.

First it killed my parents and my unborn little brother, and then it tried to kill me. I suppose it assumed I was dead after it slashed me in so many places that I had numerous nearly invisible scars from it and didn't stick around to make sure I actually did die, because I'm still alive.

The police found me the next morning, bawling my eyes out, unable to tell them what happened, and why my family was now dead while I still lived. I had no idea why the shadow wanted to kill me (at least, I assumed it was me the shadow as after, because it toyed with me first, slashing random parts of my body, enough to bleed a decent amount, but not enough that I would bleed out quickly), but I did know that it was sent by someone it called 'Queen Beryl' and mistook me for someone else as it called me 'Serenity' instead of Serena. Maybe we looked alike or something, and that was why the monster confused me with this 'Serenity' person?

I went into foster care for about around two years after that, because rehabilitation took a year (the shadow's slashes severed a few muscles in my legs which I was able to get fixed, though I had to relearn how to walk) getting passed around from family to family because no one wanted to deal with the problems that arose from the attack.

In the hopes of getting adopted, I ditched the ball and pigtail hairstyle I used to have and cut it short, around my ears or so. Looking back on it, I'm glad I did, because it became so much easier to take care of, even if it didn't help me get adopted.

Finally, after getting taken back to the orphanage for what must have been the fiftieth time, Grandpa and Ray came to see about finding Ray a brother or sister since her parents had just died. It was Ray who spotted me cowering in the corner, trying desperately to protect myself from the bullies who were picking on me because of the problems I had.

She marched over there, umbrella in hand (because it had been raining that day— the only reason I remember that is because of what she did to the bullies with the umbrella) and proceeded to tell them off, demanding that they stop picking on me.

When they refused, she beat them senseless, black and blue with her umbrella. Not usually a deadly weapon, but in my sister's hands . . .

After making sure I was alright, she went over to Grandpa and announced that she had found her new sister. I was flabbergasted. So much so in fact that I think I nearly fainted. None of the adopters who had come to the orphanage had wanted to deal with the problems I had.

She told him that she had to protect me— because at that point, I was still too much in shock from the attack and couldn't protect myself.

"_Hey sis,_" Ray's telepathic voice sounded in my mind. Partly because of our shared psychic powers and partly because of other things, we can talk mind to mind. It doesn't work with anyone else except Grandpa, though, likely because he was just a little bit psychic too. "_There are some kids picking on a cat near the front. I can see them out the kitchen window. Could you take care of them? You're the closest. The Deadly Weapon is in the hallway._"

I nodded, smiling despite the futility of the action. "_Got it._"

What was the Deadly Weapon? Not a gun, not a baseball bat, not anything you'd expect to be a weapon, but the very same umbrella Ray used to defend me all those years ago.

"_Thanks. I'd handle it myself, but I'm a little occupied making sure that lunch turns out okay._"

I snorted. "_Grandpa could burn _water_ without trying to._"

"_Hey!_" Grandpa protested telepathically, making sure that I heard his protest despite the fact that we all knew it was true. "_I'm not that bad!_"

I merely grinned and fetched the Deadly Weapon from the hall. Holding it like I would a sword, I charged the boys. "_You brats had better leave that cat alone or else._" I shouted at them. They couldn't hear me, of course, but that was no surprise. They didn't, however, need to hear me to get the message, and ran off with their tails between their legs.

"We're sorry!" They wailed. I merely rolled my eyes. They weren't sorry, and were only saying that so as not to get beaten senseless, black and blue any more than they already were.

I picked up the cat and inspected it to make sure it was okay, and when I decided it was, I set it down and let it go on its way. I didn't notice it watching me as I turned my back to finish my sweeping and put the Deadly Weapon back where it belonged.

"So," Ray asked as I entered, finally done with my sweeping. "How'd it go?" I raised an eyebrow. "Good point. They ran off with their tails between their legs, claiming they were sorry even though we both know they weren't. What happened to the cat?"

I shrugged. 'It looked okay, so I set it down and it probably went on its merry way.'

"Probably." Grandpa agreed. "With an unusual mark like that, it's probably someone's pet that doesn't have a collar and is out wandering around."

"Not quite." A voice said from the window.

I turned to see the cat from earlier standing on the open windowsill.

"Who are you?" Ray demanded. "What do you want with us?"

"I am Luna." The cat answered. "And I want nothing from you or the old man, only from your sister. You see, your sister is the only one who can help me. An evil group called the Negaverse has started to launch attacks the human race to collect energy for the Negaforce, led by a woman who once came from Earth called Queen Beryl."

The blood drained from my face and I hurriedly signed a question to Ray to pass on to Luna.

"My sister would like to know if this 'Queen Beryl' commands shadow monsters." Ray translated. "She was attacked by one on this day, eight years ago."

"Yes," Luna replied. "But why can't your sister just ask me yourself? Why did she ask you in sign language to pass on the question?"

My hand automatically touched the five scars on my throat, about halfway up my neck, where the monster's sharp claws had slashed it that fateful night. The attack hadn't cut my jugular, or I would have been dead, but it had cut something else, something that left me permanently silenced, my voice stolen.

"It isn't obvious?" Grandpa asked, puzzled.

"No. Tell me, why?"

Ray rolled her eyes. "It should be. Eight years ago today, a shadow broke into Serena's family's home in the dead of night and killed her parents before trying to kill her. It wasn't successful, as you can see, but the attack took precious something from her."

"You mean—"

"That's right." She agreed cheerfully. "It took her ability to speak. You see, my sister Serena is mute. And Grandpa and I are the only ones who know."


	3. Defending Earth From A New Enemy

Defending The Earth From A New Enemy  
Chapter One: Wind In The Sky, Stars In The Heavens

_Trunks_

Mainly because Mom wanted a representative from Capsule Corp to be present at the Red Data Animal exhibit (Capsule Corp was one of its sponsors) I got two tickets. Since Mom was torturing me by making me go, it'd be fun torturing Goten by making him go.

"Red Data Animal exhibit?" He asked when I showed him the flier. "Would you happen to be asking me to go because your mom is making you go?"

I beamed. "You guessed it."

Goten shook his head and grimaced. "Not my idea of fun, but Mom wants me to go too. I got Variation Twenty of the _'You Will Not Be A Jobless Street Punk'_ lecture earlier when I tried to decline, so I'll come, if only so that we can come up with some way to pay our parents back."

Chichi had at least twenty five different Variations of her _'You Will Not Be A Jobless Street Punk'_ lecture which she was only too happy to repeat whenever Gohan or Goten showed more of an interest in training and fighting than in studying like she wanted.

For the hell of it, Goten memorized them and could regurgitate them at will, and often did for our amusement. While the lectures themselves really weren't that funny, Goten's high pitched, off key, uncanny imitation of his mother was.

"Remind me," I began. "How does that one go?"

"'_You will not be a jobless street punk who lives only to fight! You will make something of yourself, or else I'll be forced to take away all of your training time. No son of mine will ever allow himself to stoop to the level of a common punk who fights to live and lives to fight! So help me, you'd better make something of yourself, or I'll not only take away your training time, but I'll forbid you from training and seeing Vageta ever again! It's bad enough that he lets Trunks fight whenever she wants! It's improper for a young lady to fight. Is that clear?!_'"

"And then, she usually starts wailing, _where did she go wrong?!_" I finished.

"You know, it's amazing how much you sound like her when you say that." Goten told me, shaking his head. "Seriously. And you're not even related!"

I shrugged. "She's something like a fifth or sixth cousin through marriage— or something. I'm not sure of the exact details. My four times great grandfather and yours were brothers."

"Huh. Small world. How'd you know?"

I smirked. "I may or may not admit to meeting with your dad's dad in my dreams." And with that, I spun on my heel and left a flabbergasted Goten in my wake. "See you tomorrow!"

Goten and I met at the exhibit just before it opened (I had to be there when it opened as a representative of Capsule Corp). After it opened, I walked around a bit and looked at all the animals on the Red Data, or Endangered Species list (including tigers, rhinos, wolves, gorillas, snow leopards, cheetahs, and a whole lot more) before my stomach decided to make its very vocal demands for lunch known. Lunch time then. Thankfully, there were several restaurants nearby, and one of them happened to be my go-to whenever I was in the area and hungry.

I headed to a nearby restaurant that served a wide variety of different stuff to eat and thankfully wouldn't blink if a fourteen year old devoured several plates of food in one sitting.

Goten met me there. Originally, he was just there for the same reason I was, but when he saw me, he came over and decided to confront me about yesterday. "Hey. You know you never did explain about how you've been meeting Dad's dad— what's his name again?"

"Bardock." I supplied.

"Yeah. Well you never did tell me how you've been doing it." He reminded.

I shrugged. "Not that hard, actually. He set up an empathy link with the both of us and Gohan, but I guess somehow I unconsciously accepted the link while you and Gohan haven't yet. Once you accept the link, when you go to sleep at night, just think about Bardock. That's what he told me to do after the first time I met him in my dreams. That's how I've been getting stronger so quickly; he's been training me. Not just how to fight either. He's taught me all sorts of stuff."

"Like what?" Goten demanded.

I grinned. "Let's see, Saiyan language, politics, finance, poker, emotional concealment, drawing, painting, tracking, wilderness survival," I blushed. "And he was the one to give me _the talk_ when Mom and Dad were fighting over who had to give it to me. He mentioned something related to the topic, I don't remember what, and I was confused, so he gave me _the talk._"

Goten burst out laughing. "Now that I would have _paid_ to see."

I sighed. "Oh, button it and zip it." I grumbled. "Who was it that gave you_ the talk?_ Was it your mom, or was it Gohan, or someone else?"

The tables turned and Goten blushed. "Well . . ." He poked his fingers together. "No one did, actually. I mainly learned everything I know about the topic from a few books."

I smirked. "Well then maybe he could give it to you." Goten merely raised a certain finger.

We paid for our lunch and then headed back to the exhibit and looked around for a while longer before deciding that we'd been here long enough and had compiled enough information to write an accurate report on the event for our mothers, so we decided to head to the park.

However, once we actually got to the park, we were hit by a sudden earthquake.

I saw a bright light flash, and then something that was very strange indeed happened.

I appeared, naked, in an unfamiliar place. There also didn't seem to be anyone else around.

I saw the unmistakable orange and black form of a tiger, which charged at me suddenly.

I instinctively raised my arms to block, but it just disappeared— inside of me, somehow.

Blinking and groaning, I sat up and looked around. "Hey, Goten," I began. "What the heck happened? I remember a bright light, and then . . . nothing."

Goten shrugged. "Not a clue." He looked at me, raising an eyebrow in interest. "Did you know that your hair suddenly has pink streaks in it?"

I grabbed my backpack, which I had brought with me because it had a few things I deemed essential, namely a few books I was reading and a mirror I used to entertain myself with light shows (yet another thing Bardock-jii-chan taught me), and grabbed the mirror out.

I held the mirror up to my face and sure enough noticed that there were now pink streaks in my hair. When and how the hell did those get there?

"Okay, weird. I don't know why that might be."

The next day, I had a Multi-form do my chores, and homework, and sparring, and everything else Mom and Dad wanted done, while I mediated and met with Bardock. This time, however, our session was a little different as we had Goten joining us. Gohan, apparently had decided that he didn't want to partake in the lessons, even though Goten told him about the empathy link. Well, whatever. The stick in the mud's loss was mine and Goten's gain. Some Saiyan he was. Sad as it was, even Bardock agreed that Gohan acted more like a human than a Saiyan.

Anyway, first Bardock had us spar to see where we were at. As predicted, because of his training, I was a little ahead of Goten in that area.

Then he did something new: he transported both of our physical bodies to a place on Earth he had reserved for the purpose of training. He set it all up with the Kais, apparently.

Once there, Bardock decided that he was going to address the issue of the pink streaks in my hair. "Trunks, I see you decided to do something different with your hair today. It didn't take any time away from your training, _did it?_"

I scoffed. "Of course not!" I huffed. "I didn't even do them and I don't know how they got there either. They just appeared yesterday after I blacked out when we got hit with a weird sudden mini-earthquake." I happened to glance up at the sky. "It's going to rain later."

Bardock and Goten both looked at me. "What?"

After training, Bardock produced a pair of lunch boxes and offered them to us. One smelled like fish, so I immediately grabbed that one and devoured the fish. "Now _that_ was good."

My surrogate grandfather and my best friend exchanged glances.

Finally, Bardock spoke. "I think you should take me to the place where this happened yesterday. Maybe then we'll find out what's going on."

So I led them there. I remembered in detail what happened until the earthquake. Then I remembered the tiger that jumped into me and told them.

All the sudden, I sensed something and ran towards it to figure out what it was. Before I knew what was going on, I saw a huge monster that somewhat resembled a rat. It grabbed me in its claw. Goten and Bardock immediately shot it with a pair of twin Special Beam Cannons.

The rat-thing dropped me, but a blond stranger grabbed me and carried me into a nearby tree. He asked me if I was alright and referred to me by name.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"Let's leave introductions for later." The blond man said. "First, defeat that." He pointed to the rat-thing whatever it was that Goten and Bardock were still fighting.

I raised an eyebrow. "One question: how?"

The man pushed me off the tree, and somehow, I managed to land on my feet. Then he threw something at me. I automatically caught it, seeing it glow between my hands. "Just call out the first thing that comes to mind." He instructed. "You're special. Only you can defeat the rat."

I closed my eyes for a minute, the whatever he hell it was between my hands, and then they shot open a minute later as I called out "Wind in the sky. Stars in the heavens. An indomitable spirit in my heart. Grant you magic unto my hands. Strawberry Mew— set up!"


	4. Sailor Moon Done The Thoroughbred Way

Sailor Moon Done The Thoroughbred Way  
Chapter One: The Meeting Of Soul Mates Again

_Rory_

Losing most of our mares was bad enough, but then learning that the insurance wouldn't cover our losses— which meant we'd have to sell the farm— was even worse. Granted, Mom and Dad managed to find a job as the breeding managers of Townsend Acres, a racing farm, which would have been cool if it weren't for the fact that we had to sell our home to live there, but it still wasn't the ideal situation, at least not for Ashleigh and I.

Mom and Dad took us on a tour of the farm. At the training track, we saw a boy who could only be the owner's son— he was too young to be a regular exercise rider.

He looked over all of us, seeming to dismiss us, making eye contact with us merely to be polite.

However, when my eyes met his, images flashed before my eyes of a time long ago. A time when magic still existed, when people actually lived on the planets. In most of the memories I saw was a boy who looked just like the boy riding Townsend Prince. Suddenly, I remembered everything and had to keep myself from gasping. Here in front of me was someone I never thought I would see again. In this life, Brad Townsend, heir apparent of Townsend Acres.

In the last life, my boyfriend, Brad the crown prince of Earth.

Caroline, our older sister who couldn't be more different from me and Ashleigh, obviously had a crush on him, but no matter what she felt, or what she thought she felt or Brad felt, it would never be any more than just a crush.

You see, in the Moon Kingdom, such a thing as soulmates really did exist. I wasn't sure about now, but in the Moon Kingdom, everyone, or almost everyone, had one person they were destined to be with, and would never love anyone else no matter how many times they were reborn. The same was true for Brad and I, and for Ashleigh-nee-chan and Mike-nii-san, Brad's cousin in the past. I had no idea about now, but I got the feeling that they weren't, strangely.

I mentally shook myself as I realized a conversation about horses was going on without me.

_Nice of you to join the land of the living again._ Ashleigh-nee taunted out our mental link. They say that twins can sometimes be so close that they can speak without words. Well, in mine and Ashleigh's case it's true, to a certain extent. We can speak without saying anything out loud, but we still hadn't quite mastered the art of speaking with just gestures or glances.

I mentally raised a certain digit at her. _Quiet. I'm listening._ I barked before adding my two cents to the conversation as if I'd been listening the whole time.

"Say," Brad began after a while. "Aurora, Ashleigh, would you two care to come to my house for lunch tomorrow? I certainly hope we can be friends." He sighed. "Nearly everyone around here puts me on some kind of pedestal and treats me like I'm something more than human because I'm the heir to a famous racing farm. If you do decide to come, we can talk more about the horses, if you're interested, that is."

_And I want to introduce you to my father._ I read in his eyes.

My twin and I exchanged glances. "Sold." We declared in unison.

Brad smiled. "Great. I'll see you at three o clock tomorrow."

'If the three o clock fairy doesn't call you.' He added in discreet sign language, and I had to stop myself from groaning. Last time around, this piper fairy working for some woman named Badiyanu hypnotized my sister, me and numerous other kids to steal their dream energy, which enlarged her Black Dream Hole. Her ultimate goal was for it to swallow the solar system, and probably the galaxy next, and then the universe after that if she could. Mother managed to decrease the size of the Dream Hole and release the captured children, but couldn't quite defeat the dream stealing witch. I told Brad about the incident, and have regretted it since.

The reason being? He's _never_ let me live it down, despite the fact that it wasn't my fault.

As it was I scowled at him.

The next morning, I went to the barn that the expecting broodmares stayed in and couldn't help but be drawn to Townsend Holly, or just Holly for short, who was obviously pregnant with twins (she was too big for just one foal). This would probably be the last time she was bred.

_Ashleigh's Wonder and Aurora's Miracle._ My mind supplied, remembering them from last time.

I still remembered having to convince Father (that was what I generally called Clay, Brad's father, because last time around, I had no idea who donated the necessary chromosomes for mine and Ashleigh's existence— I didn't ask and Mother didn't tell me) to keep them around, and that they really would be great racehorses someday.

I checked my watch and almost cursed.

Couldn't I _ever_ be on time for a meeting with Father?

There were times when I swore I couldn't.

So, mentally cursing up a blue streak, I flash-stepped across the farm and reappeared at the grand house where my boyfriend lived. I soon as I stopped, I doubled over, gasping for breath.

"Guess I'll have to work on mastering the Flash Step again." I sighed. "This stinks, 'tebanne." And cursed again when I slipped and used my verbal tick. I wasn't as bad as one of the characters from my favorite show, Naruto (which Mom had all but banned me from watching when she was around because of the violence and the swearing), who said 'Dattebanne' every time she flustered, but I tended to say it when I was annoyed.

"Still have your verbal tick, I see." The person I least wanted to hear me using said verbal tick drawled. "I guess the more things change the more they stay the same."

In response, I merely raised a certain digit on my right hand as I managed to catch my breath and straightened up. "I'd tell you to bugger off," I began, scowling at my boyfriend. "But then I'd be stuck out here and you'd do exactly what I say."

He looked the picture of innocence. "Would I do that hime?"

I snorted. "You absolutely would, and you usually only call me 'hime' when you're putting on your innocent act. Now are you going to introduce me or not?"

"As soon as Ashleigh-imouto—" He broke off as my sister appeared via Flash Step, who then promptly doubled over, gasping for breath as I had been a minute ago. "Speak of the Sith."

Ashleigh glared at Brad and gave him the one fingered salute. "Bugger. Off." She ground out through clenched teeth. "Or so help me, I swear to the moon I'll—"

"Yes, yes, you'll splatter my guts." Brad recited. 'I'll splatter your guts' was both mine and my sister's favorite and in general our go-to threat when someone was being annoying. "Now come on, or we'll be late. Not that that's too hard to do with the pair of you."

He ducked a pair of swats.

"I'll splatter your guts." We snarled as one.

Brad merely rolled his eyes and led us inside. Nice place, though I expected nothing less.

"Father, I present to you the reincarnated moon princesses, Ashleigh and Aurora," I scowled. "Who still prefers the more boyish moniker of Rory."

Father sighed and shook his head. "The more things change, the more they stay the same." He said, but smiled all the same. "It's good to see you two again. I'm sure you noticed that Holly is pregnant with Wonder and Miracle. They should be born in a few weeks."

I grinned and punched the air. "And the team comes together again!" I cheered.

I heard the door open and a pair of boys' voices call out "I'm home!"

Ashleigh turned to me with a smirk. "You've got three guesses." She informed me, referring to who the boys were. "And the first two don't count."

"Oh, let me see. Who could it possibly be?" I pretended to consider. "Hm, I think it's Dragon and Phoenix, Dragon and Phoenix, and uh . . . the sky?"

Brad (re)introduced his palm to his forehead. "Hey Dragon, Phoenix, get in here, we've got company." He shouted at his younger brothers.

"Ooh, is it Imouto One and Two?" Phoenix wanted to know.

"Please tell me it is." Dragon added. Apparently, they got their memories back too. Terrific.

While I didn't really mind hanging out with Phoenix and Dragon, they had the ability to get on _anyone's_ nerves. Even the most even tempered, patient person on the planet.

"What was that you called us?" Ashleigh and I asked sweetly in unison, cracking our knuckles.

"Um, nothing!" Dragon, the wiser of the two, assured us hastily.

At least _someone_ knew when to cut his losses and beat a hasty retreat.

"What're you talking about? We called them Imouto One and Two." Phoenix, the less wise of the two, reminded, looking at his twin in confusion.

I raised my hand and a bolt of reddish gold energy appeared. "Divine Shooter!" I shouted, waving my hand forward. "Shoot!"

My attack hit Phoenix dead on, making him stumble and making me frown. Damn. Once upon a time, I could have easily sent him flying with just a 'Shooter. It looked like that was just one more damn thing I had to work on, like Flash Step.

Still, despite having lost a good deal of my hard earned skill, I had something, or rather someone, very important back now, and I was going to do _everything_ to keep it that way.


	5. Winds To The Sky Stars To The Heavens

Winds To The Sky Stars To The Heavens  
Chapter One: The Coming Together Of The Aces

_Kiara_

The morning I started at Sky High, I was doing a bit of . . . mid-morning practice with Vajramon.

Translation: I was, as usual, practicing magic when I wasn't supposed to be.

You see, thanks to magic, we had found a way for Oxmon to Digivolve into her Ultimate form and bypass her Champion form for one hour exactly so that we could practice. My twin brother Dragon and his partner Strabimon did the same, but Strabimon only Digivolved to his Human Champion form as I called it, because his Ultimate form was too big, his Mega form was _way_ too big, and his Beast Champion form was, well, a beast with four legs and a tail, and not at all suited for any sort of practice with Jutsu and chakra, which usually required handsigns to mold.

Mom had forbidden me from practicing magic from this anime series I had watched and promptly fallen in love with not because she didn't like it or because it was different than the hero powers she and Dad had, like flying or super strength, but because she was worried that it would backfire on me and get me seriously hurt. On top of that, in the series, one of the character's ultimate attacks took a year off her life every time she used it.

That didn't stop me though, because I had figured out a way to use my ultimate attack, the Ragnarok Breaker, without any side effects thanks to quite a bit of forbidden practice. That and a good few practices while in a Unison with Vajramon (okay, so technically it was Bio-merging, but I called it being in a Unison because in the show I got the idea to practice magic from, Unison Devices/Familiars could merge with their masters to enhance their abilities).

As for how Vajramon and I became partners, well, a couple of years ago, I found this weird blue card and when I swiped it to see what it was, my scanner turned into a silver Digivice. After that, I went to the Digital World with Takato, Rika, Henry, Kazu, Kenta, and Suzie and Ryo who later showed up, kicked the other Devas' butts, beat some sense into their leader whose name I could never quite pronounce much less spell, and then beat the D-Reaper and kicked its sadly non-existent ass from here to the moon. During that time, I learned to Unison with Oxmon.

She was as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha obsessed as I was, and that was saying something. Together, we managed to recreate a few attacks, such as the Divine Shooter, the Ragnarok Breaker, and Thunder Rage. My personal favorite happened to be the Ragnarok Breaker. Although, the Divine Shooter was pretty handy for situations where the overwhelming destructive power of the Ragnarok Breaker was a too much, because the 'Breaker was great for leveling a city but small things like hitting the center of a specific target? Well . . . not so much.

If only because of my magic and my ability to Unison with Oxmon, I'd be able to get into the Hero tract at Sky High. My oldest brother Will?

Well, I wasn't too sure about him.

He hadn't discovered his powers yet.

Granted, neither had I, but I had destructive skills that would get me into the Hero tract.

So anyway, Vajramon and I were locked in a battle, one which would probably only end when one of us decided that it was getting too late for practice and gave up. I had a feeling it would be me, because as good as I was with swords, Vajramon was way better.

She'd been training for years longer with her swords than I had mine. Like her, I used a pair of longswords kept in sheaths, but unlike Oxmon and her evolutions, I preferred to keep them over my back instead of at my sides because it made it easier for me to draw them in a pinch. However, for the purpose of this battle, we were just using wooden swords the exact same size shape length and weight as our real swords— there was a much, much smaller chance of us getting hurt beyond a few bruises and the occasional splinter with the wooden swords.

If it were just one sword each and I had a bit more training, we might use live ones, but as there were four swords to keep track of, using live swords was not a good idea. Once I got a little farther in my training, Vajramon would show me a spell to magically dull the edges.

I heard either Mom or Dad coming and hastily unsheathed my wooden swords, making it look like I was just sparring with Vajramon, something Mom didn't mind too much.

"Everything okay in here? Nobody's died yet?" Mom asked, amused, taking in the numerous bruises on my arms and my slightly shaky hold on my swords.

I sighed. "Mom!" I protested. "We're not that bad!"

She gave me _a look._ "If you're sure."

Once her back was turned, I gave her the one fingered salute, which made Vajramon laugh before she de-Digivolved, her one hour a day as an Ultimate without using a Blue Card up, as I heard Layla-nee-chan, Will's not-so-secret crush, enter like she did every morning.

As I changed out of my sweaty practice clothes and into some fresh clothes that were better suited to being worn on my first day of high school, I heard the alarm that signified hero requiring trouble go off. Mom and Dad were about to head out on another rescue mission.

I headed into the kitchen as Layla-nee-chan turned on the news, which of course showed Mom and Dad defeating the huge robot-thing with no issues.

Man I wished I could do that.

It wasn't like I needed any sort of training.

Oxmon and I could already fight just fine together, especially when we were in a Unison.

I didn't see why I needed to go to Sky High, but Mom and Dad insisted— it was a time-honored family tradition, they said. It would be good for me, they said. Despite knowing how to fight already, I still needed training, they said. There were new things there I could learn, they said. The law stated that as I was under age I still had to be in school, they said.

Well I wasn't buying it, or at least all the reasons but the first. I personally thought that it was just because it was a family tradition and they wanted the prestige of having two Sky High graduates in the family. Oh I knew they loved me, but sometimes, I thought that family honor was way too big of a deal in the hero world. Parents and bloodlines and powers meant everything, as well as being able to graduate from Sky High as a hero. To have _three_ Sky High hero tract graduates in the same house, and for them to be the children of two other Sky High hero tract graduates would be a huge honor. The family name would be remembered for years.

Hell, the Stronghold name would probably be remembered for years to come, especially if mine, Dragon, or Will's children graduated from the hero tract.

Mom and Dad saved the day as usual, Dad grabbed a souvenir in the form of the robot thing's left eye, and life continued as usual. The bus for Sky High arrived right before they got back.

Will wanted to know if it was the bus to Sky High and I clamped a hand over his mouth, Dragon doing the same (because neither of us had any wish to get caught by villains).

"Quiet." I hissed.

"Do you _want_ to alert every single supervillain in the whole damn area that this is the bus to a certain special high school?" Dragon added.

Will sighed. "You're right. Sorry imouto, otouto."

I glared at him and (re)introduced my fist to the top of his head. "Don't call me little!" I snapped. "I'm almost as tall as you are! Don't make me use a 'Breaker on you."

"And don't call me little either!" Dragon growled. "Don't make me using a Pale Fire on you!"

Will shuddered. "No Breakers or Pale Fires necessary." He promised. "I'll stop calling you little."

I beamed, clutching the pendant that was an exact replica of the one that one of my favorite characters from the show, Hayate, had. "Thank you."

I took a seat in the back of the bus and waited for it to move.

Since Will, Layla, Dragon and I were the last ones, the bus went over an unfinished bridge.

Most people screamed in fear. I wasn't one of them.

Instead, I bit my lip and flat out refused to say anything.

Dragon screamed, but not in fear. No, my twin was screaming in excitement.

This was _nothing_ like flying with magic. I supposed that I would just have to get used to it, the way I got used to holding my swords in a reverse grip.

When I first started learning, I wanted to hold them in a regular grip, but that didn't work because they kept getting in the way of eachother. So I had to learn to hold them in a reverse grip, like Vajramon did. It was a real pain in my rear, sometimes literally when I dropped the things and then sat on them because I was so tired that I couldn't even stand up and just dropped where I stood, but it was well worth it. I finally learned to hold the things right.

As soon as we got there, we were 'greeted' by a pair of thugs, one who could stretch himself and one who was a speedster.

Like all speedsters, his feet ran _almost_ as fast as his mouth did.

The stretcher claimed he was there to collect our fifteen dollar "new student fee" which was bullshit. Mom and Dad told us all about Sky High, and neither of them ever mentioned a new student fee, or other such nonsense.

I merely sighed and charged a 'Shooter. "Divine Shooter." I muttered and let loose a bolt of blue energy which first hit the stretcher before looping around to hit the speedster. I noticed that a pink and a yellow bolt had joined my own blue bolt.

"She shoots," I heard a girl mutter. The pink bolt hit the speedster before it hit the stretcher.

"She scores." Another girl muttered as the yellow bolt did the same.

I grinned and looked around. "Well, well," I said as I put up a sound shield. "It looks like the three Aces have come to grace the high school in the sky."


	6. Mystery Dungeon Legendary Children

Mystery Dungeon Legendary Children  
Chapter One: Beginning In A Different Way

_Kurama_

I groaned as I woke up, noting that I thankfully still had my bow and had somehow passed out on the beach. I sat up and groaned again. "Looks like I tore my stitches again." I complained, remembering that I'd injured myself in a fight with the Sableye a few weeks ago. Since they mostly relied on their claws and somehow managed to get close enough that my bow was useless before I could draw my knife, I got scratched up and had to have stitches courtesy of my big brother, Birch. Why Mom named him that when she named me Kurama, a much more original name, I wasn't quite sure, and whenever I asked about Father, she always got a faraway dreamy look before in her eyes clamming up, going temporarily deaf, and changing the subject.

I saw someone who I assumed was a Mightyena approaching me. With his dark hair and wolf ears, golden eyes, and a tail wrapped around his waist, what else could he be?

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked.

I nodded. "I'm fine." I answered. "I'm Kurama, a Vulpix. And you? I'd say based on the way you look you're a Mightyena. Oh, and have you seen a Grovyle around here? My brother Birch and I got separated in the storm last night."

He shook his head. "No, sorry, I haven't. Yes, I'm a Mightyena. You've got a good eye. My name is Kiba. It's nice to meet you Kurama."

I smiled. "Nice to meet you too Kiba-san." I extended my hand. "So what are you doing here anyway? My brother and I were looking for something," I avoided mentioning that it was the Time Gears because most people freaked out when they heard Birch and I were looking for them, instantly accusing us of being bad Pokémon who wanted to make time stop. "And we got separated in that storm last night. I don't know quite how. The last thing I remember is trying to hold on but the wind and rain made it impossible. I don't know where my brother went. Anyway, that's how I ended up here, passed out on the beach."

Kiba nodded. "I see. I'm going to join Wigglytuff's guild today. I _would_ have done it earlier, but my mother had business she needed me to attend to."

I had to keep myself from grinning. I knew what it was like to have an overprotective mother. "Entirely too overprotective?" I guessed and he nodded. "I know what that's like. It's a wonder Mom let us search at all. Then again, where we come from is pretty bleak, so I can see why."

"I don't know of any places like that, and as my mother is—" Kiba seemed to catch himself. "Well, let's just say my mother has certain powers that make travel easier, so I've been all over the place. I've never seen any place that could really be described as bleak."

I sighed. "I come from a long,_ long_, way away." I said cryptically, not wanting to reveal that I was actually from the future. That'd go over _real_ well: I'm from the future, a world which is completely paralyzed, I'm collecting the Time Gears which everyone thinks regulate time, so that I can take them to the Temporal Tower to stop the planet's paralysis, and was on the run because I was technically criminal for trying to change history.

"I get the feeling you're not telling me the whole truth." Kiba warned. "So who's your mother?"

I grinned. "This'll really blow you away: my mother is none other than Celebi, Voice of the Forest, Traveler of Time. I don't know who my father is though, as he died before I was born and Mom never tells me anything about him."

"Why not?" He wanted to know. He didn't seem at all fazed by the fact that Celebi is my mom. How interesting. Maybe he was a Legendary child like me?

I shrugged. "The hell if I know. I've asked, but she just goes conveniently deaf when I do."

"So anyway, new recruits now are supposed to join in teams of at least two now." Kiba began. "I guess the idea is that it'll cut down on injuries in the field with a partner to back you up. So do you think you would be opposed to joining with me?"

However, I didn't get a chance to answer as a Koffing and a Zubat bumped into him and made off with his personal treasure. He swore at them, using a few words that could even make sailors blush, insulting their ancestry in ways even I had never even thought of (including no less than five snakes, four lizards, three birds, two worms, and a rubber duck), and I'd come up with plenty of ways to insult the Sableye's ancestry whenever I got into a fight with them. I had to hand it to Kiba: he was definitely a very creative curser. I'd have to use those curses sometime.

"What do you say we go after these bozos and get your treasure back?" I suggested when he was done. "This could be a test of how well we can work together, to see if we really have what it takes to be a team, or if we'll flounder on our first E-rank."

He raised an eyebrow. "You actually want to be on a team with me? Even though we just met?"

I grinned. "Sure I do. Now come on. You _do_ want your treasure back don't you?"

"He'd better get it back," A new voice interrupted. "_I_ was the one that gave it to him."

Kiba sighed. "Opal, please tell me what you're doing here." He said through gritted teeth. "Mom _told_ you to _stay at home!_ Just because she can go anywhere she wants in a matter of seconds being the Lady of Space _does not mean_ that she can always look out for us."

He seemed to forget I was there.

So, his mother was Lady Palkia, then.

I'd never met her, mainly because she had fled when her counterpart Lord Dialga had turned primal in the future. I had no idea what happened to her in this time, but it seemed that she hadn't fled yet and wasn't aware of what was going on.

That would make sense considering that Lord Dialga was only starting to turn primal in this time. Noticing the still arguing siblings, I cleared my throat. "If you two are quite through," I began sternly. "I do believe we have a treasure to get back."

"Right, sorry." They said in the perfect unison that only twins could pull off.

I waved a hand. "No problem." I decided I was going to call in my brother, wherever he was. I raised my right arm, and more specifically my clenched right fist, and shouted my command phrase in the Ancient Tongue. "_Summon. Command: Stop! Chariot of Damnation!_"

And then my brother appeared, looking confused, before he spotted me. "Kurama. 'Sup, sis?"


	7. Magic And Data Working As One

Magic And Data Working As One  
Chapter One: I Have My Own Story To Tell

_Kana_

You're heard my brother Takato's story, about how he discovered that Digimon was real. About how he and his friends struggled to protect Calumon, the Light of Digivolution given Digimon form, from the Devas only to discover that they and their master weren't the true enemy. You're heard about how he and his friends defeated the out of control D-reaper.

Well I have my own story to tell.

I suppose you could say it began when Mihiramon, the Tiger Deva, appeared in the real world under the orders of his master, looking for a long-lost fragment of the Light of Digivolution, which was said to have been given human form, impossible as that was.

The fragment couldn't give Digimon the power to Digivolve, but it could do other things, from the legends Ryo had told me, ones he'd heard in the Digital World from the Digimon he and Cyberdramon helped. Amazing things. Incredible things. Things beyond your wildest dreams.

Anyway, Mihiramon came looking for it, and for some reason, was drawn to me. I got to be his Tamer. We later discovered that somehow, _I_ was the lost fragment (and later I became all of it when Calumon got deleted by a rouge Digimon who somehow came to the Real World). Mahiramon received orders from his master to guard me, because the power I held was great. I think after a while, he stopped looking at it so much as a duty he had to perform and started looking at it more as spending time with a friend. I certainly liked spending time with him.

The Tiger Deva had a sarcastic sense of humor that not many people understood.

He also had a way of pissing people off without even trying. I always found it funny that so many people got pissed off at him so easily— he'd even managed to piss off the calm and strong Henry and the easygoing Takato.

Still, pissing off ability or not, everyone managed to get used to him.

It was about six months after I first became his Tamer that I had the most unusual dream.

A boy probably about the same age as Takato was when he and the others first went to the Digital World tried to seal this thing he called a Jewel Seed. However, it failed and he was badly injured. It would take a doctor or a healer as powerful as Alanna the Lioness, a character from one of my favorite book series, to save him. He was in pretty bad shape.

Just as I was about to wake up, I swear I saw him turn into a ferret.

Except then I bolted upright, gasping and panting and cursing in every language I knew, which, surprisingly, was quite a few, including Digital Language. Mahiramon, who was lying on the end of my bed, lifted his head and looked at me, looking about as concerned as he ever looked.

"Kana? What was that dream about?" Mihiramon demanded, blunt as ever.

I sighed, resigned. "No hiding anything from you, is there Aniki?" I called him that occasionally because he had become like another big brother to me. "Well, here's what happened. I saw a boy trying to seal these things called Jewel Seeds, but it didn't work, and he got hurt. It would probably take a healer of Tsunade or Alanna's caliber to heal him. Just before the dream ended though, I could have sworn I saw him turn into a ferret. Pretty weird huh?"

My Digimon brother frowned. "Now that is odd." He agreed. "Do you know exactly what the thing he was trying to seal was?"

I shook my head. "No. He called a Jewel Seed, though. Commanded it to 'be sealed' whatever that meant. That thing he was trying to seal sure as hell didn't look like a seed though. Anyway, his sealing attempt quite obviously didn't work." I glanced at the clock and cursed in Digital Language. "Damn it, I'm going to be late!"

Mihiramon chuckled. "Some things never change."

I paused briefly to flip him off. "Button it and zip it!" I snapped. "I'm not late that often!"

He merely raised an eyebrow. "No, I don't think I will."

I scowled, but resumed my rush to get ready without saying a word. I'd been having weird dreams for as long as I could remember— I attributed it to being that lost shard of the Light of Digivolution given human form. I still wasn't sure how that worked, but anyway, I was pretty sure that because of that I'd been having weird dreams.

That was actually how I knew about everything that happened in the Digital World and in the Real World during the days when Takato had to hide Guilmon from Mom and Dad.

However, this particular dream took the cake. Usually, I dreamed about people or places I was familiar with, like the place where Mom and Dad's bakery was before they owned it and turned it into the bakery it is today, for example.

Takato occasionally had dreams, like that one about Rika his first night as a Tamer, but nothing like mine, probably from being around me for so long.

I had a feeling that this particular dream wasn't a dream of the past like I usually had, or a dream of the future which I occasionally had, but a dream of the present.

As far as I could remember, I'd never had a dream of the present.

School was boring as always. On the way home though, I met up with Mihiramon, who turned himself invisible, and we passed by the dock on a small lake as usual. However, today, something was different about it: it was completely trashed.

"Excuse me sir," I began, tugging on the sleeve of the nearest police officer, who then turned to face me. "What happened here?"

"Well the barge and the boat somehow got wrecked." He answered. "We don't know how, but we're just cleaning it up now."

I nodded. "I see. Thank you for the information."

Suddenly, I heard something. "_Help me._"

I whirled around sharply in the direction I'd heard the voice come from, the forest from the looks of it. "Mihiramon, tell me you heard that." I demanded, taking off at a run.

My partner made himself visible as soon as we entered the forest. "Don't worry Kana, you're not going senile. I assure you, I head it too. It sounded like telepathy, actually. But the real question is, who or what has the power to use telepathy around here? I know some Digimon can do it, myself included, but as far as I know, humans don't have that ability."

I nodded. "That's what I want to know."

In the woods, I found the ferret from my dream last night, which then shifted into a human boy who looked to be around three years younger than me.

"_Can you hear me?_" A telepathic voice asked. "_I need your help. I need you and your tiger friend to come over here so that I can give you Raising Heart._"

I blinked. "But Raising Heart is yours, isn't it?" It was probably my Light of Digivolution powers kicking in again, but I somehow knew what Raising Heat was.

"_I'm dying._" The boy said flatly, still using telepathy. I guessed that he didn't have the strength to speak out loud. "_I can tell. Now get over here._"

I sighed. "Alright. Mihiramon, you too. You— what's your name?"

"_Yuuno Scryaa._" He supplied.

"Well Yuuno, what do we have to do?"

"_Just come over here and sit down— or in Mihiramon's case lay down so that I can touch you. I'm going to give you Raising Heart and my magic. Mihiramon I'm going to give my memories._"

I sighed and did just that. "Alright. And Mihiramon, for once in your life, don't argue."

My partner grumbled a few incoherent curses under his breath, but complied anyway, keeping one eye on me, and the other on Yuuno. It appeared he didn't trust the ferret-boy.

"_Thank you_." Said Yuuno. He placed his hand on me and another on Mihiramon's head, who did _not_ seem very happy about that.

I felt something flow into me. Was it Yuuno's magic? My powers told me that, yes, it was.

Yuuno then closed his eyes, removed his hands, and was still.

After a long moment, I stood up. "Come on Mihiramon. Let's go home. Mom and Dad should have something for me to do, since Takato is probably out playing with Guilmon again. Especially because they're still talking about turning the bakery into a Café."

Lately, Mom and Dad had been talking about turning the bakery into a Café to get more business. That meant Takato would have to stop going out to play with Guilmon so much, something I personally thought would be good for him.

He sighed and heaved himself to his paws. "And what are you going to do about the boy?"

I closed my eyes for a moment. "Tell me if my powers start going crazy." I said and held out my hand. They had a nasty habit of doing that. I imagined the earth caving and Yuuno's body being buried and then felt it shift underneath my feet. Then, I imagined a headstone rising from the ground, engraved with a final message I felt was fitting: _Yuuno Scryaa_ _the boy who paid the ultimate price to seal the very things he unearthed. He will always be remembered._

I wasn't sure how I knew that, but I blamed my Light of Digivolution powers.

"Nice." I heard Mihiramon compliment. "For once, you did exactly what you intended to."

I snorted. "For once." I agreed. "My powers have a very nasty habit of going out of control, and it can be really bloody annoying at times." I'd started saying bloody and bugger after reading the Harry Potter books so many times.

Mihiramon snorted. "At times?"

I gave him the one fingered salute. "Button it and zip it."

"Refer to earlier conversation. Now let's get home or your parents will worry."

I sighed. "I'm coming, I'm coming." I decided not to tell Mom and Dad about what happened. They may have accepted the Digital World stuff, but that didn't mean they'd accept this.

Hell, I still hadn't told them that I had certain powers from being the Light of Digivolution.

Quite a while later, after dinner, dishes, and all that, when it was time to go to bed, I sensed something and sat straight up from where I was reading another American fantasy novel.

The book dropped.

Mihiramon looked at me, and in unison, we came to the same conclusion. "Jewel Seed."

"Come on, let's go." I said, standing up, thankful I hadn't put on my pajamas yet. "Take a guess as to how I'm going to sneak out without alerting Mom and Dad." I already had a plan in my mind, starting with something straight out of Naruto, my favorite show/manga series.

"Shadow Clone?" He suggested.

"Shadow Clone." I agreed. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" A clone appeared right beside me. I told it to take my place and make sure Mom and Dad didn't get suspicious before I leapt out the window, white hair flying straight up. Brushing my hair again was going to be a pain.

Mihiramon was able to lead me right to the place where the Jewel Seeds were. I had to clamp my hands over my ears to block out the horrible screeching noise.

"It's the Jewel Seeds alright." He told me. "You need to activate Raising Heart."

I sighed. "And how exactly, pray tell, do I do _that?_ My powers didn't tell me _that_."

Despite the severity of the situation, he laughed. "Just hold Raising Heart in your hand. Close your eyes, clear your mind, and recite the password." He told me the words I needed say to activate the little red jewel in my hand. "Think you can do it?"

I scoffed. "I'm the Light of Digivolution given human form! Of course I can do it!" Arrogant? Probably, yeah. But it did make my nerves about the Jewel Seed go away.

"Well then," Mihiramon ordered. "Do it."

I closed my eyes and let out a breath.

"Wind in the sky, stars in the heavens. An indomitable spirit in my heart. Grant your magic unto my hands. Raising Heart— set up!"


	8. Winged Archer Of The Avengers

Winged Archer of the Avengers  
Chapter One: The Story of the Avengers

_Lyric_

It was almost time for bed, but as usual, none of us wanted to go to bed.

What we really wanted was to hear the bedtime story that Dad always told us: the story of the Avengers' fall and Ultron's rise.

The story with the mystery ending.

Despite its not so happy ending, we always wanted to hear it.

In fact, that was usually the _only_ story we wanted to hear.

We never wanted to hear any other story. Dad once told me when we were spending some quality time together in the workshop that the story of the Avengers and Ultron was the only story we ever asked for. That sounded about right.

Why, none of us really knew, but it was still our favorite of all time.

We would later learn that it was a true story and that it was about our parents, about how Dad's (in his mind) colossal mistake destroyed them.

He still believed he was responsible for his friends' death.

"Tell us the story again, please?" James begged.

"Just one more time? Please Tony?" Torunn pleaded.

I said nothing, but gave my father the one look I knew he couldn't refuse: the dreaded Puppy Eyes no Jutsu, the look very few males could resist. I knew it thanks to my mom visiting me in my dreams, teaching me how to use my powers. She taught me all sorts of secrets, from the look no boy could resist, to mastering my psychic powers. The thing _I_ wanted to learn was a blue ball of energy she called Aura Sphere. She claimed that that was 'only the tip of the iceberg for what my powers could do' whatever that meant.

I really couldn't wait for the more advanced stuff.

If that ball thing she showed me wasn't even advanced, then I could only imagine what Mom _did_ consider advanced.

I had no idea where she was or how she walked in my dreams, but I was still glad I got to know her and spend time with her. That was more than could be said for the other kids' parents. Torunn didn't even know who her mom was, and while her dad was alive, he left her here with the rest of us, for reasons we still don't know.

Dad laughed, folding under the pressure from my look and the pleading from the others. "Okay, okay, one more time, but then it's off to bed with you."

"Yes Dad/Tony." We chorused, disappointed.

None of us wanted to go to bed (although chances were we'd fall asleep by the end of the story anyway— we always did).

No big surprise there. The day we wanted to go to bed would be the day Torunn and James stopped getting into fights (even at five years old, they still got into all sorts of fights, about everything they possibly could from who got the last sweet to who had to do particular chore that day), which was to say never. In our minds, no propper kid would actually _want_ to go to bed unless they were _really_ tired or they were sick or something.

Dad picked Pym up and began the story. "And there came a day unlike any others when Earth's mightiest heroes were united against a common threat: the Soldier, the God, the Knight, the Spy, the Giant, the King, the Pixie, the Bird, the Ghost, and the Archer." We all knew the tale by heart, but Dad told it best. "On that day, the Avengers were born, to fight foes that no single hero could withstand. Time traveling conquerors, alien invaders and masters of evil. One by one, the Avengers vanquished them all. And finally, when the world was at peace, the heroes built lives of their own."

"Hooray!" We all cheered in unison.

That was always the best part of the story.

Dad set Pym back in his crib and continued. "The Soldier and Spy fell in love, as did the Giant and the Pixie, and the Knight and Bird. The King found his Queen, and the Thunder God returned to his kingdom, far above the world of man, and one by one, the children of the Avengers came to be." He gave me a fond smile. I knew I was the daughter of the Knight and the Bird. "Children who would one day become a new generation of heroes. But in time, evil returned. And its name . . . was Ultron." He shuddered. No one could see it but me. Maybe it was because of Mom's training, or maybe it was just because I knew Dad, but somehow, I was the only one. Weird. Maybe it was because I was his daughter? Well, it was something else.

I knew it was because he _built_ Ultron with the hope that it could keep the peace in place of the Avengers so that they could lead their own lives for once.

He didn't tell me; I read his mind and found out thanks to Mom's training.

I still hadn't told him, though I wouldn't be surprised if he knew that I read his mind and found out about Ultron, 'cause he was just smart like that.

Dad closed his eyes for just a second, and an almost invisible tear rolled down his cheek.

"Dad?" I asked, concerned. "You okay?"

He managed a smile. He was probably pretending, but if he could pretend then at least he felt okay. Mom always said that when Dad couldn't even pretend to be okay then he was _really_ not okay. "Of course I'm okay Lyric-chan, but thanks for asking."

I didn't, for one second, actually believe him, but I let it go.

"Back to the story!" Azari demanded, speaking for the first time.

Azari rarely demanded anything, but when he did, it was usually that Dad tell the story, or in this case, get back to the story. It was our favorite, for some reason, despite the fact that it didn't have a happy ending. Maybe because of the mystery ending?

"Of course Azari-kun. Ultron wanted nothing more than total domination over the world," Dad continued. That was a lie. It was created to keep the peace, but eventually it begun to believe the only way to bring peace to the world was to rule it. "But the Avengers stood in its way. Sadly, their defeat was inevitable. But before they fell, the Avengers hid their children, so they could grow up safe, far away from Ultron's grasp." Our eyes drooped. One by one we began to fall asleep. I was the last one to close my eyes and finally fall asleep. "Because the Avengers knew that as long the children were safe, there was hope. Hope for the future."

By that time, we had all fallen asleep, dreaming about soldiers and spies and knights beating and battling bad robots and one day getting our own chance to battle bad robots.

Smiling (we always fell asleep around the end of the story) and shaking his head, Dad put us all back in our own beds, pulled the covers up, and turned out the lights before leaving the room and closing the door as softly as he could.


	9. A Twinkle In The Night Sky

A Twinkle In The Night Sky  
Chapter One: To A New Place

_Alicia_

Today was the day Mother's magical reactor was supposed to be tested. I watched from the balcony, idly wishing that Mother would come home soon, before I saw a bright light. I tried to run farther into the house to escape it, but it didn't work. I blacked out, but to my surprise, I woke up in an unfamiliar place, a woman who looked a bit like me, but with silver hair and blue eyes instead of blond hair and red eyes standing over me.

"Are you okay?" She asked. "I saw a bright light and then you appeared. I was worried that you might be . . ." She trailed off, but she didn't need to finish. I knew what she meant.

I shook my head and sat up. "I'm okay." I looked around. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Moon Kingdom, child." The woman informed me.

I blinked. "The Moon Kingdom? What's that?"

"You don't know? The Moon Kingdom is made up of the planets in this solar system, except Earth which has recently petitioned to join." She explained. "I was certain everyone in this solar system knew about the Moon Kingdom."

"How far is Mid-Childa from here?" I wanted to know.

"Mid-Childa? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

I sighed. "Swell. The blast must've transported me."

"Blast?"

"My mother was working on a magical reactor and it was supposed to test today. I saw a blast of light from where Mother works and then I blacked out only to wake up here. I guess I must have been sent to this place." I explained. "And I'm stuck."

"Would you consider letting me adopt you then?" The woman asked. "I'm Selene, the queen of the Moon Kingdom. I'm offering because I recently lost my daughter, Serenity, to a mysterious illness that's swept the kingdom, devastating every planet. And of course, you all but lost your mother, having no way to get back to her." She looked at me again. "You look a red eyed version of my daughter Serenity, blond hair and all. In fact . . ."

"In fact what?" I demanded.

"In fact you look so much like her that we could pass you off as her." Selene began.

"And if everyone believed that I was her, no one would object to me being the heir." I finished. Mother made a point to teach me all about politics and other stuff like that, wanting to make sure that nothing like what happened to her, when she was abruptly kicked out and forced to fend for herself when she defied her parents and refused to marry the man they had planned for her to marry because it would unite their families and keep their bloodlines going happened to me. You see, Mother's family was an old family from before the time of magic and were as stuck up as most old noble families were with all the stereotypical practices— right down to arranging marriages for their children to keep the bloodline pure, even if it meant marrying cousins. Mother wanted to make sure that _never_ happened to me, and so taught me almost everything she knew about noble politics and related topics, and I learned it all pretty well.

"Exactly." Selene agreed.

I thought her offer over for a few minutes. I had no way of getting back to Mother, or even letting her know I was alive. Selene just lost her daughter. It seemed like a win-win situation: both of us gained something we lost. I got a mother and she got a daughter.

"I accept your offer." I decided.

I didn't really thing there was anything to lose by accepting.

She smiled. "Good. Remember, in public you'll have to answer to Serenity, because everyone will believe you are her. We'll tell everyone the sickness caused your eyes to change from blue to red because it reacted badly with your mixed blood— Serenity was half Lunarian, what I am, and half Uranian, the only one to my knowledge."

I nodded. "Okay."

After that, I started calling Selene Lady Moon. At first I wanted to call her Lady Mother, because she was my mother in a manner of speaking, but I still had Mother on Mid-Childa, but I kept saying Lady Moon because I was used to Mother's "I don't got no more an eye for you 'den the Lady Moon" about some guy who liked her at work. Mother had a tendency to occasionally lapse into street cant when she was angry or annoyed, probably because of the numerous years she spent on the streets before she found a job with the TSAB and met my father (I didn't ask and Mother didn't tell me— all I knew about him was that he died shortly before I was born).

Years passed. I met a boy named Darien, from Earth, on one of my numerous missions as the first Lunar Agent (Two was Artemis-nii-san, Three was Luna-nee-chan and I was One but no one knew it). Before we knew it, we had both fallen head over heels for eachother. However, Beryl, a woman who met Darien and believed that he loved her, didn't like that Darien chose me over her and decided I must have forced Darien to love me.

Because of this, she started practicing all sorts of nasty magic and even went to the Negaverse, the Moon Kingdom's enemy, to get power to 'bring Darien back to her' because she got it in her head that I was the reason Darien didn't love her.

In the middle of a battle, I used Mage magic, what little of it I remembered, and Darien noticed the difference. So after the battle was over, I came clean about why I preferred to be called Alicia in private— because that was my name and I wasn't really Lady Moon's daughter by birth. The real Serenity, the girl Lady Moon conceived and gave birth to, was dead from that sickness. The sickness that killed Serenity didn't make my eyes change color, because they were already like that. If I couldn't trust him with my secret, who could I trust?

Needless to say he was quite shocked, but told me that it all made sense; he'd met Serenity once before, but didn't feel anything for her, and she acted a little different. Plus, she always called Lady Moon 'Mother' both in public and in private. I only did so in public to keep up the charade that I was Serenity, so that no one would complain about me being heir. He actually told me that he suspected I was a different person. I congratulated him on figuring it out.

Around the time I was fifteen and Darien was eighteen his best friends and generals, who he had sworn a blood oath with, were kidnapped and brainwashed to believe they had always served Beryl. Because they were brainwashed, that meant that they didn't break their oaths willingly, which hopefully meant that they would be able to find true peace and happiness, which those who willingly broke their oaths would never find again once the broke the oath.

A year later, when I was seventeen and Darien was twenty, Beryl launched an all-out attack on the Moon Kingdom, targeting me specifically.

Lady Moon called me to her throne room. "I'm going to seal Beryl and send you to the future. Where you'll be _safe_, so no protesting." She added, fixing me with _a look_. "Unlike the others who will be reborn, you'll be de-aged and only your memories of the Moon will be erased."

"But—"

"Alicia."

"Fine." Lady Moon raised the crystal and began chanting in Old Lunarian. I looked at one last time, and sure enough, like mine, her face was streaked with tears.

"Goodbye." She whispered, and just like that I'd lost my mother. Again.


	10. The Clever Thief Who Steals For Good

The Clever Thief Who Steals For Good  
Chapter One: Thief of Hearts Saint Tail— Set up!

_Lien_

While by day, I was just an average student of St. Paulia's School, by night, I was the infamous thief with a good cause, St. Tail. You see, I never stole anything for no reason.

Tonight, to neither mine nor my best friend Sierra's surprise, I was pulling off another heist. Admittedly, I should have been at home in bed, but I A) happened to like my job, and B) was the only one who could do it. I wasn't sure why, but Sierra told me that according to Arceus-sama, it had to be me. Me, I was just doing it because I was bored of school. I _wanted_ to go on my Pokémon journey, but of course the orphanage where I lived wouldn't let me.

They 'didn't have the funds' or something stupid like that. As if I needed money to go on my journey; just a way to get to Sandgem Town to get a starter and a Pokédex from Professor Rowan, like all new Trainers from Sinnoh. But no, they wouldn't let me. I personally thought they just wanted me out of the way or something, which was why they shipped me off to nun school. The second I graduated, which couldn't come too soon, I was going on a Pokémon journey.

So instead, I settled for being St. Tail to spice up my life. And this way, I also got to help people.

Granted, I'd only started recently and had only pulled off thirteen heists so farm making this one my fourteenth, but being Saint Tail was already an ingrained part of my life, so much so that I almost hoped I never had to stop. I liked it a lot more than I did _school_.

Anyway, tonight's heist was stealing a painting from a man who had originally stolen it and several other works of art from the museum. He probably did what I did on the first few heists before the 'boys in blue' as I had dubbed them, caught on to me: waltz right out with them as if he were meant to have them. It was such a simple tactic that I was surprised it took the boys in blue four heists to catch onto me. The boys in blue that I had to deal with were also quite incompetent so that made my job easier. I was in and out with little problems, long before anyone at school realized I was gone. Except Sierra, of course, but that was the whole point.

The next morning at school, all anyone could talk about was my, well, Saint Tail's latest heist. My classmate Asuka Jr. wasn't too pleased by a few of the descriptions, but I told him to chill out and relax, and worry about his grades instead of Saint Tail, because he seemed to think that every unsolved crime in the past month or so was the work of Saint Tail.

He accused me of being Saint Tail, but I just laughed.

How could he think that _I_ was Saint Tail? Okay, so I was, but still. The fact remained that if I laughed about it, made a joke out of it, no one would actually believe the accusation.

"You really think that _I'm_ Saint Tail?" I wheezed through my laughter. "Seriously? How in the world did you come to that conclusion? For one, we look nothing alike. I've got blue eyes and from the reports I've seen, Saint Tail has green. I'm blond, but Saint Tail has brown hair. For another, my best chance of being able to go on a Pokémon journey is to unfortunately stay in school. So I've been told anyway. And also, I believe class is about to start, so can we continue this argument later? I have no desire to get detention, thanks. I kind of need to get good grades."

"Fine, we'll continue this after school!" Asuka Jr. shouted.

Rolling my eyes, I spun on my heel and marched toward my seat.

Class was boring as always, and frankly I wished I could learn something more interesting, and preferably something about Pokémon, but sadly, that wasn't going to happen. This was, after all, a religious school. To make matters worse, I hadn't even been allowed to sign up for the classes that dealt with Pokémon, so I was stuck in the classes for those who didn't want to be Trainers. If I could just get a Pokémon, then I could switch programs, but until that happened, I was unfortunately stuck. I'd just have to find a Pokémon or something.

After school, I headed to the church to ask Sierra to pray for me so that I could get a Pokémon of my own. On the way in, I passed a little girl who had brown eyes and hair which had been done up in pigtails. I could think of only one reason why she'd be here.

_And hopefully, it'll mean another heist tonight._ I thought hopefully.

"Hey Sierra," I called out as I entered. "I passed a girl on my way in. Do I have another heist to pull tonight? Please tell me I do."

Sierra turned to face me, smiling. "Yes, you do." She answered. "That little girl, Saori, came to ask for Arceus-sama's help. Do you want the whole story, or a summarized version?"

"The whole story, please." I requested.

"Alright. Her grandfather is a jewelry appraiser who was recently brought two sapphires to appraise. One of them was the Blue Meteorite, a very rare, unique, expensive gem. The other was a fake, created as a precaution against theft." My best friend began.

"Let me guess," I put in. "The fake was so clever, so similar to the real one, that he forgot which one was fake and which one was real."

"Exactly, which was why they were sent to a jewelry appraiser. Saori's grandfather was taken in by the gem's beauty, and told the owner that the fake was the real one and bought the real one for a very low price. The fake gem was sold to a rich woman, and she has no idea that the gem she bought isn't the real Blue Meteorite." She explained. "So tonight, we're going to correct it."

"So what I'm supposed to do is take the real gem and exchange it with the fake?" I guessed.

Sierra nodded. "Exactly. It should be easy enough."

I grinned. "Perfect. I hoped I would be able to go out tonight."

Sierra shook her head. "Sometimes, I think you're a little _too_ eager to be Saint Tail."

I shrugged. "Maybe. But anything is better than having to go to school. You know how I feel about it, and what I would do if I had my way."

"True." She acknowledged. "Very true. Now, I think that you should go right after dark, because usually you go later in the evening, a while after it's gotten dark. If we vary your pattern a bit, then it'll be harder for the police to catch onto you."

I nodded. "Got it." For the hell of it, I sent a Shadow Clone, a solid clone that gave me all of its memories when it dispelled, back to the dorms, while I stayed in the church until it was time. Most of the time was spent praying that I would get a Pokémon soon.

"Are you ready?" Sierra asked when the sun had set.

Grinning, I held up the pendant which would turn me into Saint Tail. "And you know it."

"Good luck." She said.

I closed my hands around the pendant and closed my eyes. "Ye Lord! Mask of bone and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams, unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Thief of Hearts— set up!"


	11. Fire Ice And Lightning

Fire Ice and Lightning  
Chapter One: Making a Deal

_Yellow_

I heard Mom's distinct footsteps long before I saw her. I smelled something delicious. Taking another sniff, it smelled like pumpkin. And that meant—

"Oh Yellow." She almost sang. "I know that you're not in bed yet, so come have a slice of pumpkin bread. I just got it out of the oven."

At the mention of Mom's delicious fresh-baked bread, my twin brother Red and I perked up instantly. "Can we Mom?" Red begged. "Please?"

Mom laughed. "Okay. But only if you go to bed right after you're done."

"Awww." We complained in unison like the twins we were. "But _Mom_—"

"No _buts_." She interrupted. "I know you want to say up and wait for your father, but too bad. It's after eleven, and you don't want what happened to your father to happen to _you_."

I gulped, knowing exactly what she was talking about. When Dad first started out on his Pokemon journey, he woke up late and was left with only Pikachu.

Of course Pikachu became one of the strongest Pokemon in the whole entire world without ever evolving (and to this day he still refused to evolve for reasons that none of us but Dad could ever hope to comprehend), but that's not the point.

"Who's butting?" A voice asked.

"Dad!" I cried. "You're just in time. Mom made _pumpkin bread!_"

A timer beeped.

"You forgot cake." Mom said jerking her head in the direction of the kitchen.

I took a sniff, and sure enough she did have a cake baking. How could she not tell us?!

"Cake?!" Red, Dad and I exclaimed indignantly, again in unison. We did that a lot. "You made _cake _and you didn't tell me?!"

Mom sighed exasperatedly. "Yes I made cake, to celebrate Red and Yellow getting their first Pokémon tomorrow." She said. "And I'll not hear any more complaints about it."

"Actually I've got a present for them." Dad said shifting his arms so that Red and I, and Mom too, could see exactly what he carried.

"Eggs? Pokemon eggs?" I asked excitedly. Dad had never even let us _see _an egg, let alone _have _one, so this was pretty exciting.

He nodded. "Yup. The yellow ones are for you Yellow, and the red ones are for your brother. They should turn out to be fire and electric types. See the symbols?"

I looked closely at the two he brought me. On them were pictures of lightning bolts.

"Oh yeah. Cool." I said tracing the patterns. "What do you think they'll hatch into?"

Dad shrugged. "Well I feel a really strong Aura coming from the one in your right arm, and a barely weaker one coming from the one in your left arm. The opposite with Red's."

I raised my eyebrows, but didn't comment.

"So, do we have to wait until they hatch to go on our Pokémon journeys?" Red complained. "That's gonna suck!"

We both wanted to go on a journey really bad. For me, it was because I was mocked and tormented by the girls of the town. Red wanted to get away to keep from losing his temper at them (he was way too overprotective of me) and because going on a Pokémon journey was the adventure of a lifetime, especially considering who our father is.

"Yes." Mom snapped. "You do."

"Awww." Red and I whined.

Mom sighed. "If you go to bed right now, I'll take you for a Ponyta ride tomorrow afternoon." She announced. She always knew just how to bribe us.

The reasoning for taking us in the afternoon is because we're hardly ever up before ten o clock in the morning. We both liked to sleep late.

I perked up, as did Red. "Really?" I asked hopefully. "You'll really take us for a Ponyta ride?"

Mom grinned. She knew _just _how to work us. "If you go to bed without more than five more complaints, I'll let you go _by yourselves_."

Red and I brightened.

Mom had yet to let us go on a Ponyta ride by ourselves, even though we were thirteen (Mom and Dad both agreed, though it was more like Mom thought and Dad was forced to agree, lest he get shocked by Shinx, that it would be better if we _waited _to go on a Pokemon journey or something along those lines).

"One song?" I pleaded.

Mom rolled her eyes. I was _obsessed _with music.

"Just let her." Dad said before she could reply. "We all know that one day Yellow's gonna be the next battling singer."

I flushed a bright red color. "Dad!" I objected. "Do you _really_ have to say that?"

"I'll say it if it's true." He retorted.

I sighed. "I just can't win." I groaned. Mom and Dad beamed at me.

"Well, go on. Sing a song for us. Preferably something with a bit of a rock edge." Red requested. "Those are the ones I like the best."

I nodded. "'Kay." I looked at my brother, and as if by a silent cue, he picked up his guitar (he'd begged and pleaded with Mom for lessons, though it was Dad who finally agreed and paid) and began the rocking tune of the song.

The song started out fairly slow, but it would pick up. I took a deep breath and began to sing, circling as if I were in a fight.

"I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me.  
I still feel your touch in my dreams.  
Forgive me my weakness but I don't know why.  
Without you it's hard to survive."

Here the tune picked up and I took my cue to start dancing around as if I were fighting someone. I liked to fight, a lot.

"'Cause every time we touch,  
I get this feeling.  
And every time we kiss,  
I swear I could fly.  
Can't you feel my heart beat fast?  
I want this to last.  
Need you by my side.  
'Cause every time we touch,  
I feel the static,  
And every time we kiss I reach for the sky.  
Can't you hear my heart beat slow?  
I can't let you go.  
Want you in my life."

The lyrics had stopped, but the tune was still fairly fast. Finally, the tune slowed down and so did I, circling as if waiting for my opponent to make a move.

"Your arms are my castle,  
Your heart is my sky.  
They wipe away tears that I cry.  
The good and the bad times,  
We've been through them all.  
You make me rise when I fall."

And now the tune picked up again, and so did my movement. Whenever I sang this song, I liked to pretend I was fighting against someone. Don't know why. I just do.

"'Cause every time we touch,  
I get this feeling.  
And every time we kiss,  
I swear I could fly.  
Can't you feel my heart beat fast?  
I want this to last.  
Need you by my side.  
'Cause every time we touch,  
I feel the static,  
And every time we kiss,  
I reach for the sky.  
'Can't you feel my heart beat slow?  
I can't let you go.  
Want you in my life."

I danced around for a minute or so before singing the last verse of the song.

"'Cause every time we touch,  
I get this feeling,  
And every time we kiss,  
I swear I could fly.  
Can't you feel my heart beat fast?  
I want this to last.  
Need you by my side."

Mom and Dad both started clapping.

"Do you have everything ready for tomorrow?" Dad asked.

I gave him a look. Sometimes I wondered how he became the greatest Pokémon Master ever to walk the earth when he was such a space brain.

"Well they might hatch tomorrow, you never know." He said. I shrugged. "Oh, could you two look after these eggs too?"

He retrieved two pairs of eggs, one pair decorated with ice symbols, from his backpack. I tilted my head to the left in confusion, though Red voiced exactly what I was thinking.

"Are they not for us?" Red asked.

He shook his head. "Nope." He answered. "Their Auras aren't a close enough match. Besides, you've already got two."

I shrugged. He _did_ have a point. "So, do you have any idea who it might be?" I asked curiously. "The one who gets the other two eggs I mean?"

He shook his head. "Well no, but they tell me it'll be two girls, about your age, from another dimension." He replied.

"'They tell you?'" I repeated giving him a sidelong look. "What the hel— _heck_ do you mean by that Dad?" I hastily corrected.

He shrugged. "Yeah. They talk to me from inside the egg."

I raised a skeptic eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Here." He placed a hand on my shoulder. A warm feeling flowed through me. He lifted his hand, and the feeling stopped. "Touch your eggs and see what happens."

I shrugged, but figured it wouldn't hurt anything. "Well, okay." I said and touched the one with a thunderbolt surrounded by fire under a rainbow.

"_Who are you?_" A voice asked me.

"_I'm Yellow._" I replied mentally. "_I'm the one Guardian Ash gave your egg to_."

"_Then you're the one I've been feeling. You're my chosen trainer._"

I frowned. "_Chosen trainer?_" I repeated."_What's that mean_?"

"_It means I chose you to be my trainer._" The Pokemon explained. Okay, weird."_My egg won't hatch until I choose._"

"_And you chose me_." I guessed. I could feel or sense or whatever the Pokemon nod.

"_Yes I did_."

I didn't know whether I should feel honored or whether I should groan, because look at my dad. The Legendaries _always_ had something for him to do, and while, yes, he _did_ become a great Trainer, he was always involved in some crazy save the world scheme or something like that. "_You know, I don't know whether I should feel honored or groan._" I said. "_You're a legendary after all. Aren't you?_"

"_Maybe I am._" The Pokemon replied. "_And then again, maybe I'm not._"

I groaned aloud.

Dad gave me a curious look. "Whacha groanin' 'bout, Yellow?" Dad asked.

" Damn— er, _darn_ mysterious Pokémon won't tell me whether it's a Legendary or not. Quite frankly, I don't know whether I should be honored, or whether I should _groan_." I replied with an exasperated sigh. The reason I kept correcting myself was because Mom didn't especially like us swearing, for one reason or another. I wasn't sure why.

"You already _did_ groan, didn't you?" He pointed out.

I would have flipped him off if I wasn't sure I'd get a tongue lashing from Mom.

"Okay, well if it _is_ a Legendary Pokémon, I don't know whether to be honored, or groan more than I am now." I amended rolling my eyes.

"Ah. Anyway, you should go to bed. You don't want to be tired for your Ponyta ride tomorrow, do you?" Dad asked teasingly.

I snapped to attention and jokingly saluted him. "Hai, Otou-sama!" I mock bellowed, grinning from ear to ear. "I'll go _right_ to bed."

Dad laughed. "Goodnight then. I'll see you in the morning."


	12. Village Hidden In The Shifts

Village Hidden In The Shifts  
Chapter One:

_Emily_

The adventure of a lifetime started on my eleventh birthday, not long after my family, minus Uncle Marcus, moved to Scotland. I was petting my family's Dalmatian Madison (although she was more my dog than she was Mom's or Dad's dog, which was fine by me) when she just fell asleep. It had me worried, so I took her to Aunt Cassie.

Aunt Cassie's eyes widened in shock and she seemed to have a bit of a panic attack before she calmed down. "Don't worry, Madison-chan is just fine." She'd picked up on mine and Robby, my cousin's, habit of calling the animals –kun or –chan depending on their gender. "I'll tell you what happened later, but right now I need to call Tobias, Rachel and Jake."

At dinner time, our parents explained to us what happened.

"What happened was you absorbed Madison's DNA." Dad explained. "You know the stories about the kids who transformed into animals to fight aliens?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Those were and still are our favorite stories. So?"

"They're real." Uncle Jake said bluntly.

Robby's face lit up. "Really? Can we meet the kids from the stories? Please?"

Mom laughed. "You're looking at them."

My eyes widened. "No. Way." And then I promptly did a Hinata and passed out. Hinata was a character from our favorite show, Naruto. Unlike most children, Robby and I had never been interested in (shudder) SpongeBob Squarepants or anything similar. No, for us, it had always been Naruto and a couple other anime series, such as Fullmetal Alchemist.

This would later lead us to form what we called 'Koutaigakure no sato' or 'the village hidden among the shifts,' for our morphing abilities.

"Oi, wake up Fainter-chan." Robby teased I wasn't sure how much later. "If you don't get up right now I'll keep calling you fainter-chan until you sew my mouth shut."

I shook a fist at him as I sat up. "Oh, just go rot in hell or something." I huffed. I knew some very foul language despite only being eleven.

"Emily," Dad warned.

"Oh lighten up Tobias." Mom scolded. "At least it's just swearing. There are worse things to be doing at almost eleven years old. Besides, she'll do it anyway, and so will Robby for that matter, so they may was well have permission."

Yeah, Robby and I both had very foul mouths (though we didn't say a certain four letter F-word which was not four in our parents' hearing because that was just asking for trouble). I'm not quite sure where we learned it from or why we started doing it, but I can't honestly say I especially care where I learned it or why we did it. I just didn't matter to me.

A couple days later, we had a surprise visitor. He called himself Albus Dumbledore, and he was from a place called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He claimed we had magic, somehow. He wasn't sure who we got it from, though it came from Mom and Uncle Jake's line.

We agreed that a few days later, we would go to Diagon Alley to get our supplies.

We would have gone to the zoo to get more morphs, but sadly it was closed for renovation. I believe Dad said they were adding another area for Asian cats (lions and tigers and the works, something I was _very_ excited about, having an unusual obsession with big cats).

Our first stop was the bookstore. We got the books we needed and a few more for entertainment purposes as well as a few books on various magical creatures. After that was the magical creature store, where we each found a bird to act as a mail carrier. I found a golden eagle. Robby found a Red Tailed Hawk. I found this incredibly ironic, considering that my dad was the one who used to be stuck in default hawk morph. After the creature store was the robe shop. It took a few minutes full of poking but once we were done getting robes came the part I'd most been looking forward to ever since Robby and I found out we had magic: wands!

I practically bolted to the wand shop. "Whoa there tiger, slow down would you?" Dad joked. "The wands aren't going anywhere."

I scowled at him. "Dad!" I objected. "You know I've been looking forward to this."

Mom laughed. "Yes honey, we know." She turned to Uncle Jake. "Do you want to split up? Since they've been looking forward to wands so much, one of us can take them to get them while someone else could get their school books and supplies."

"Good idea." Dad agreed. "I'll take them to get wands, if it's okay with you Jake?"

Uncle Jake nodded. "It's alright with me."

"Yes!" I cheered. "Come on, let's go!" Breaking into a run, I bolted towards the wand shop.

"Well, well," A voice startled me. "I never thought I'd be seeing one of the children of the famous Animorphs here. I must say," He turned to Uncle Jake and Aunt Cassie. "It's an honor."

"How do you know about us?!" Uncle Jake demanded.

"I'm something of a seer." Olivander-san told him. "I can see things that happen not in the future, but in the past. I saw plenty of your adventures and your children. However, I never imagined that I would be seeing them in my shop."

"So can we get wands now?" I asked before Dad shot me a warning glance.

Olivander-san laughed. "Of course. Since you're so eager, why don't you go first?"

I grinned. "With pleasure." After trying numerous wands, I finally found a match in a wand that was made of hickory, fifteen inches even in length, and had a hair from a white Siberian tiger as the core. Considering I liked tigers and wanted one to my battle morph, I couldn't be more thrilled. Olivander-san cautioned me that I wouldn't be able to use magic outside of school because the Ministry, the magical government, had a spell called the Trace on all the wands he sold, since underage magic, at least to Muggleborns or those born to non-magical parents, was forbidden. I secretly began looking for ways to get rid of said Trace so that I could do magic.

Next was Robby, and after even more wands than I went through, he was chosen by a wand (because the wand chooses the wizard according to Olivander-san, not the other way around) that was made of Blackthorn the wood of warriors, fourteen and a half inches long, and for the core had a bone from a gray wolf. I found it very interesting.

After that was done, we bought our books and other supplies. I nearly gagged at Lockhart's books, and I had to hold back a wail of despair when I heard that Lockhart himself would be our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year. How troublesome.

"What's the problem with Lockhart anyway, aside from the obvious?" Mom wanted to know. "I mean, he's obviously not fit to be a teacher, but there's something else, isn't there?"

I nodded. "He's a fraud. I know he is. A glory hogging fraud."

I watched a boy, the famous Harry Potter supposedly, get dragged up on stage, muttering in what seemed to be Latin. How he knew it, I wasn't sure.

I didn't know much Latin, but I did catch _son of a gorgon, power hungry snake,_ and a few choice suggestions about where Lockhart could stick A) his books and B) his head. Not to mention _several_ colorful insults to his intelligence and his ancestors.

The way Mom, Dad, Aunt Cassie, and Uncle Jake were looking at Lockhart with barely contained smirks, they wholeheartedly agreed with the boy's sentiments.

"I like him." Robby announced.

I grinned. "Me too." I agreed. I looked around, but didn't see anyone really looking for him. There were several people looking at him, and a red haired woman seemed to look for him every few minutes, but he didn't really have anyone looking out for him.

"Hey Dad," Robby began, apparently having the same idea as me, looking at Uncle Jake. "You see that boy over there? Can we invite him over?"

"Let me guess," Uncle Jake smiled. "He doesn't have anyone to look out for him and you want to change that. Well I don't see why not."

I cheered. "Yes! Thank you Uncle Jake!" I hurried over to the boy, dragging him away before Lockhart could get another chance to take his picture again.

"Alright," The boy demanded. "What's this all about?"

I grinned. "I noticed that you didn't seem to have anyone looking out for you." I explained. "And I wanted to change that. I wouldn't be surprised if my parents or my aunt and uncle were willing to take you in. I have to agree with your descriptions of Lockhart."

He scowled. "I have Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Weasley looking out for me." He protested.

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Then why does the red haired woman only looks for you once every few minutes before going back to watching her own children?"

He opened his mouth to find an explanation . . . only to close it when he could find none. "Okay fine, I guess that while she does probably see me as a surrogate son, she's always going to look out for her own children first, even if it's subconsciously."

I smirked. "Great. Come on, I'll introduce you to my family." I led him over to Mom, Dad, Uncle Jake Aunt Cassie and Robby. I had a feeling that he was going to like them. If they liked him, he just might get a chance at being able to touch the Morphing Cube that gave them their own morphing powers. If he did, that was just fine with me.


	13. Princess Of The Sun

Princess of the Sun  
Chapter One: A New Place

_Naruto_

It was back to business as usual in Konoha, which meant I had a mob out for my blood. Despite beating Gaara and bringing Baa-chan back to be the new Hokage, overthrowing no less than _four_ evil tyrants/dictators/whatever (I seriously had some sort of freaky talent for attracting them, and making any C-rank and above missions go up a few ranks) and trying to drag Sasuke's ass back from the Valley of the End, everyone in Konoha still hated me. What a big surprise. Trying to avoid them, I ducked into a deserted alleyway, hoping that they wouldn't spot me.

Bad idea.

The alleyway I thought was safe turned out to be a death trap. The villagers found me and pushed me to the back of the alley, up against a wall. Seeing no escape, I dropped my guard and closed my eyes, welcoming the death that was about to come. Anything was better than this hell on earth. And to think Konoha was considered to be the greatest village because of the fact that they treated their Shinobi like humans (most of them anyway), not weapons.

"Death, I welcome you with open arms." I muttered as I prepared for the pain that was about to come. "Amaterasu-sama, please make it quick and not prolong my suffering."

Suddenly, a scene played beneath my closed eyes. A group of girls fought a weird half plant half human monster of some sort, and having a good deal of trouble with it, from the looks of it. I could think up a thousand ways I would have defeated it (most of them, if not all of them, involving spamming Shadow Clones and then a mass barrage of Rasengans), but I wasn't there, so I couldn't help them.

"Who's showing me this?" I asked as I opened my eyes. "And why?"

A silver haired woman appeared in front of me. "I am Queen Serenity." She answered. "I come from a place called the Moon Kingdom, but that is not important right now." Another woman dressed in reds and oranges, and yellows and blues, like a fire (though what made me think of fire I had no idea), appeared next to her.

"Hello. I am Amaterasu, and I would like to ask a favor of you. In return, you'll be given a home, and somewhere that will treat you like a real human and not a demon, unlike them rejects." She waved her hand and the frozen villagers. "They really ought to learn stay on their side of the tracks. These stupid moronic villagers are getting on my nerves, hurting my daughter the way they do, even though she _should_ be seen as a hero."

Queen Serenity sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "_Those_ rejects, genius." She corrected sarcastically, sounding like they'd had this argument a thousand times before. "And there are no trains, therefore no tracks. You get that?"

Amaterasu flipped her off. "Oh humph. You big spoilsport. She's my _daughter!_ Does it really matter? How many times have we had this argument before anyway?"

"Two thousand five hundred and eleven." Queen Serenity replied promptly. "And shut up! She doesn't know about that yet!"

_Is this really Amaterasu-sama, the goddess of the sun and fire?_ I wondered, watching the ancient women bicker like schoolgirls.

I cleared my throat. "Um, I'm still here you know. So, the favor?"

Amaterasu blushed. "Whoops. Sorry. Ren and I have known eachother since we were just kids, which, let me tell you, was a _long_ time ago, so we always get into these little arguments. Hell, we're practically sisters. Anyway, you saw those girls fighting the half human, half plant monster? The Kessinian Blossom? That will happen in just a few minutes. You need to help them, and free her host, Fiorie. If you do, you can live in Tokyo for good. But, as much as I hate to say it, if you fail you'll have to return here."

I nodded, fighting a grin, vowing not to let that happen. "I accept. I'll do what you ask. That's the promise of a lifetime!" I declared, pumping a fist.

"Alright then. I'll send you there now, and the fight should begin any minute." Queen Serenity announced. "And remember, if you fail, you come back here, but if you succeed, you get to stay in Tokyo, and no one there will treat you like the villagers do."

She raised her hands and chanted what I assumed was a spell.

"Yeah, like them rejects do." Amaterasu agreed with a grin in the queen's direction.

I began to fade away, but just before I did, I heard Queen Serenity sigh. "_Those_ rejects, Amaterasu no baka." She corrected again before I appeared in some other place, the fight I had seen earlier now happening.

As I ran, I formed the familiar cross seal of the Shadow Clone Jutsu. A few thousand clones appeared and paired off, one clone spinning the chakra for another's Rasengan before the other clones dispelled. The Rasengan bearing clones and I all ran at the plant monster. "Rasengan Barrage!" I yelled as I drove the spiraling sphere into wherever I could reach.

"Sailor Moon, use the Scepter!" Called one of the girls, the one dressed in a blue skirt.

Sailor Moon didn't reply, and instead, brought out a scepter from somewhere.

"Such a complex windup." I muttered, seeing her twirl the scepter this way and that, before she finally called out the name of her attack.

"Moon Princess— Elimination!" A crescent moon of some sort came out of the scepter and hit the monster, causing thick pink smoke to cover the area.

"Good riddance." Another one of the girls coughed.

A man appeared. He had brown hair, almond shaped eyes, and pale skin. "Impressive." He sneered. "I never would have pegged unit with, having such awesome powers."

"_You're_ behind this?" Sailor Moon demanded.

"Uh-huh." He said with a deceptively casual shrug. I wondered if this was Fiorie, the one I was supposed to save. "But as you well know, nobody ever works _completely_ alone."

"Who are you?" The white cat demanded.

The man didn't reply as flower petals surrounded him, and he changed. Now he had green hair with a couple licks of pink, the same almond shaped eyes, pointed ears, and light green tinted skin. A flower bloomed on his uniform.

"Oh no!" The same white cat who demanded to know who he was gasped.

"The Kessinian Blossom!" The black cat added.

"Quite the little welcoming committee." The miniature woman in the flower said, looking up at the boy. "Thank you Fiorie."

So then my hunch was right; he was Fiorie. This was the one I was supposed to save, according to Amaterasu and Queen Serenity.

"I believe this planet is perfect for cultivating our plans." Fiorie said. "The energy here is very good." Energy? What did that mean?

"You know what I always say," The flower said. "Let's put the pedal to the metal."

"Gladly." Fiorie replied.

I made another clone and had it start spinning the chakra for another Rasengan. I had a feeling another big fight was coming on, and it wasn't going to be pretty.


	14. The Melody Of The Sea Dragon Heroine

The Melody Of The Sea Dragon Heroine  
Chapter One: Starting On The Road To Redemption

_Hydra_

Admittedly, I shouldn't have Snagged Pokémon from their trainers. But when you were raised by thugs, crime was all you ever knew. But when Skarmory, who always looked out for me and watched over me when Dad couldn't because he was too busy being the big tough Team Snagem member he was got turned into a monster, a monster with a black aura that still looked like a Pokémon, and Dad did nothing about it, that was the final straw. So one morning when no one suspected, I planted bombs all over the hideout in Eclo Canyon. Then, retreating on my bike, I set them off and the whole place went up in flames. I never did like that place.

No one knew that I had wrecked Team Snagem's base yet, so when I met Lady Venus, one of Cipher's top Trainers, I stopped to talk to her about the Shadow Pokémon plan. She never even noticed as she jabbered away that I picked her pocket.

I decided just to grab the first Pokéball I felt, because judging by the evil intent I could feel radiating off of it, it was probably one of those new Shadow Pokémon, and a strong one.

I had to refrain from smirking. She was supposed to be one of Cipher's Admins/top Trainers, but she couldn't even tell I picked her pocket.

That was one of the many things Dad taught me. Other things included how to handle a gun and various other non-firearm weapons like a sword, including the katana I had strapped to my back, a thirteenth birthday present from Dad, how to con a person without them even knowing, how to lie straight through my teeth and bend the truth to suit my purposes, and of course, how to battle. I'd mainly learned to battle by running simulations, but I'd had several battles in which I Snagged a Pokémon by using Skarmory to battle. I guess if I didn't actually Snag them, they could just escape and go back to their trainers the second we let them out, so I had to Snag them. However, to do that, I needed a strong Pokémon to battle a Trainer with.

That was where Skarmory came in. By using him, I could battle with a Trainer and Snag their best Pokémon. Or all of them, depending on what Dad's orders were and what I felt like.

After Lady Venus left (and stopped talking), I clipped the Pokéball to my belt and headed to the Outskirt Stand to get some food. It was the best place to eat around here, and it was the closest, and on top of that, no one asked questions.

I saw a couple of stupid looking men come out. I recognized them as Mirror B, a Cipher Admin's goons Trudly and Folly. Thankfully, they didn't know who I was. I went inside to see a report about 'the mysterious building in Eclo Canyon that blew up.' According to the report, almost everyone there had been caught and were due to be interrogated.

I had my food, and then went outside where I was challenged to a battle by some pink haired guy named rider guy Willie. I accepted, but warned him that I only had one Pokémon. He still wanted to battle. He used a pair of Zigzagoon. I, on the other hand, used my new Pokémon.

I tossed the ball up with both hands. "Nake, Acheron!" I shouted, and out came a Suicune.

This was going to be interesting. I quickly brought out my Pokédex and scanned Acheron's moves. Currently, the only move she could actually _use_ was Shadow Rush, the only Shadow Move that Shadow Pokémon could use right now, although she _knew_ several others.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Willie ordered his Zigzagoon. "Zig, Zag, use Headbutt on that Suicune!" The pink haired Rider-guy ordered, as if he had a chance.

I sighed. "Let's end this, Acheron. Use Shadow Rush and take them both out in one fell swoop."

She gave no indication that she heard, but charged them anyway and knocked them out with a single blow. I was _really_ glad I had the sense to pick Lady Venus' pocket.

Willie grumbled a few things that sounded _awfully _like profanity, but I ignored it. "Yeah," He sighed. "You're good. Real good. We need seasoning."

_That's not all you need._ I thought, but decided not to voice it or any similar thoughts. Instead, I settled on "Well, it does help to have a Legendary Pokémon."

He smiled. "True. Hey, you should go to Phenac City, out west of here. On your bike you'd be able to get there in no time. They've got some really tough trainers there."

My eyes lit up at the prospect of a challenge. "Well what do you say Acheron?"

She gave no indication that she heard. I merely shrugged. It'd take time, I guess.

"See ya." Willie called as I returned Acheron to her ball and climbed on my bike. I got to Phenac City in no time. There I saw the two morons/goons from earlier, holding onto a sack that had something in it. I'd be willing to bet it was something living.

"Hey," I said as I took a step towards them. "What's in the sack?"

"N-none of your business." Folly stammered.

I merely arched an eyebrow, a look I'd learned from Dad. "Really? Because it certainly sounds like there's something living in that bag."

"W-what are you talking about?" Turdley stuttered.

I sighed. "Do I have to spell everything out for you? I want to know what's in that bag, and regardless of what I have to do, I _will_ find out."

Folly didn't respond, and instead sent out a pair of Whismur.

I tossed my one and only Pokéball up with both hands. "Nake, Acheron." I commanded.

Like against Willie and his Zigzagoon, the battle was largely one sided.

"You took out my Whismur. You're no ordinary trainer are you?!"

I was half-tempted to roll my eyes. _Well duh,_ I wanted to say. _I've only been raised by members of Team Snagem my whole life._

I didn't know what happened to my birth parents, and nor did I particularly care. All I know about my past is that Dad found me wandering around on the streets of Pyrite when I was two. He'd taken me in; originally just because I could be a valuable asset to Team Snagem, he'd told me, and over time, grew to love me as the daughter he'd probably never have because of an unfortunate accident that left him unable to sire children when he was younger.

As long as I could remember, it'd just been me and Dad, Dad and me. And I liked it like that.

Turdley and Folly dropped the sack and ran off. I quickly untied it to find no less than nine Eevee, probably very young at that given that they seemed smaller than full grown Eevee.

The townspeople suggested I see the mayor about what happened. I didn't plan to keep them— nine young Pokémon to look after when I already had to deal with Acheron's closed heart? That was just asking for trouble, trouble I neither needed nor wanted.

I went to see the mayor, a kindly looking old man with a healthy girth. I explained to him about the Eevee Mirror B's thugs had, and asked that he find good homes for them. He promised me he would. If only because I wanted to make sure he actually did it, because I had learned not to trust appearances, I left them in the care of a retired breeder who lived here.

After that, I decided to go check out the Colosseum, and boy did I get a shock when my past came back to bite me in the butt.


	15. Legend Of The Dragon Born

Legend Of The Dragon Born  
Chapter One: Becoming A Dragon Born

_Chrysolite_

Lord Zeus was giving a speech about how brave those of us who fought in the giant war, especially the Seven, were. I listened with a blank face and half an ear, letting most of it go in one ear and out the other, focusing on the important parts. My face was blank because I didn't want to give him the impression that I wasn't listening (partially because I was listening, and also partially because he was the king of the gods and could rescind my permission to go into the sky). But naturally, something had to happen. Probably as Lord Zeus was nearing the end of his speech, I felt pain like nothing else, including bathing in the River Styx, and collapsed to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain. Finally, when the pain stopped, my shirt was torn to pieces and out of my back grew two enormous blue/black dragon wings. I had just one thing to say about this: "What. The. Hell?" At the suggestion of Athena, since it was obvious I didn't want to be immortal so that I could stay with my friends, Lord Zeus allowed me into the sky, but the chances of me suddenly growing wings, _dragon_ wings no less, were slim to none. Seriously?

This had to be a freaky dream of some sort.

"Congratulations, you're a freak of nature." Jason joked. I glared at him. He gasped.

I glared at him again. "What?" I demanded.

"Your eyes!" He exclaimed. "They've changed. They're a lot different now." He looked at Leo. "Do you have a mirror in that magic tool belt of yours?"

Leo, amazingly, produced a mirror and handed it to me as I shakily rose to my feet. "Here." He said. "And for the record, I agree with Jason. You _are_ a freak of nature."

I sighed, too busy wondering how much my eyes had changed to glare at him. I looked in the mirror and discovered that my eyes were now a dark sapphire blue color and had amazingly turned slitted, like a reptile's.

I cursed up a blue streak under my breath, making even Clarisse, the camp's only daughter of Ares and the unofficial 'cursing master' of Camp Half Blood blush, that's how badly I was swearing. "Fantastic."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Nice."

I glared at him again. "Shut up." I snapped, looking down at myself, realizing that I didn't have a shirt on because mine exploded. "Damn." I looked at my friends pleadingly, hoping beyond hope that one of them at least had a spare shirt they wouldn't mind me slashing the back of.

Reyna fished around in her backpack for a moment before she tossed me a roll of blue fabric. I raised an eyebrow. "Don't think I don't know about your magic." Was all she would say. So, she figured out that I'm a stitch witch huh? Impressive. Retreating to a private corner, I inspected the fabric and discovered it was cotton mixed with carbon fiber, so it would be sturdier than my old shirt. How Reyna managed to get her hands on that I had no idea. Still I was grateful for it.

After unsealing my sewing and mage's kit from a sealing scroll, I quickly set to work making a shirt out of the fabric Reyna provided, adding signs for strength and durability.

When I was done, I resealed my mage's kit and hurried back to my friends.

I waved. "Hey guys." My wings were still sticking out, but at least I had a shirt on now. I hadn't yet figured out how to fold them so that they didn't stick out.

"Better." Annabeth told me with a grin.

I huffed. "Ah shuddup." I complained before I turned and bowed to Lord Zeus, knowing that he could blast me at any time. "I sincerely apologize for the interruption Lord Zeus. I had absolutely no idea that was going to happen. In fact, I don't even know why it happened."

"Accepted." He acknowledged before turning to my father. "Poseidon, do you have any idea what happened? She's your daughter."

If anyone knew, it would be Dad.

Dad shook his head. "No." He thought for a moment. "Well, perhaps one idea, but I never thought it would happen. Sally once told me that she has an old power passed through her family's male line, usually from father to son. Because Chrysolite is both a girl and my daughter, I was absolutely certain that she wouldn't inherit that power. Apparently, I was wrong."

"So then," I looked at him. "You know why I suddenly sprouted a pair of _dragon wings?_"

"I might." He said cryptically. "But I believe _that_ is a conversation best had with your mother."

I sighed. "Great," I said sarcastically. "That helps _so_ much."

Dad snorted. "Teenagers." Was all he had to say.

I ignored him. "Lord Zeus, may I please be dismissed? I believe there's a conversation I need to have with my mother, about why I've suddenly sprouted dragon wings."

"Dismissed." My uncle granted. "And remember, I want no trouble in the sky."

I saluted. "Yes Lord Zeus!" I spun on my heel and as fast as I could without being considered rude, I ran towards the elevator which would take me back to the ground floor.

Once there, I looked around to make sure mortals weren't looking and flapped my wings and took to the skies. I could see why so many people liked flying. It was _incredible_.

When I landed in front of our apartment and opened the door (after making sure that no mortals were looking of course— couldn't have someone like Rachel who could see through the Mist, or worse, another demigod, seeing me and figuring things out), Mom's voice stopped me in my tracks. "Hello Chrysolite. Before you say anything, I already know why you're here."

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Oh? And what's that?"

She turned around to face me, eyebrows raised right back. "Why else? If the wings that sprouted from your back are any indication, you've awakened our family power. Chrysolite, I think it's safe to say you're not human at all anymore."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Then what's the other half of me?" I demanded, wishing Mom would just _get to the point_ already.

"Isn't it obvious?" She asked as if it should have been. "Just look at your wings."

"So wait," I began hesitantly, wishing this was just some crazy dream and I'd fallen asleep during Lord Zeus's speech and any second now I was going to get woken up and told off. "You're saying that now not only am I not human _at all_, but I'm now half _dragon?!_"


	16. The Twilight Moon Vandel Buster

The Twilight Moon Vandel Buster  
Chapter One: Death Of The Zenon Warriors

_Carmen_

As usual, the Zenon Warriors came to town to check on Beet. I knew he was Zenon's brother, though Zenon did his very best to keep it from Beet. I wasn't sure how in the world Beet hadn't managed to figure it out, since they looked exactly alike.

I secretly had a crush on him. He saved me after all, from my miserable existence. From myself.

You see, I'm not fully human. I'm half Vandel. Vandels are horrible creatures that resemble insects and animals and exist for no other reason than to cause mayhem and destruction to humans. Of course, humans aren't much better when it comes to me with my dark reddish brown hair and my silver eyes. I'm guessing it came from my bastard sire. He was the reason my mother was dead; he beat her, raped her and left her for dead, somehow pregnant with me.

Vandels and humans alike didn't like me, but back to my crush on Zenon and how he saved me. As I mentioned, humans don't like me ('cause I'm half Vandel) and Vandels don't like me either ('cause I'm half human) and when my mother gave birth to a red haired silver eyed girl when she'd never had a husband or even a lover or someone remotely resembling a lover, what else could I be but a Vandel's bastard child? They took to chasing me, hunting me, doing unspeakable things to me, so when the Zenon Warriors passed through, Zenon found me and patched me up, and when I was well enough to travel, he took me with them and left me here with his brother Beet in the hopes that I could have a normal life, that the villagers wouldn't blame me for the mistake of my birth. He came here with the other Zenon Warriors whenever he could, probably to check on Beet. Not that Zenon-sama would ever admit it to anyone but himself, and he might not even admit it to himself. He was _not_ going to be happy when he found out that both me and Beet took the Mark, which marked me as a Vandel Buster despite being half Vandel myself (something I couldn't help— it's not like I asked to be born, thanks).

I was playing my guitar just outside the gate when they came, working on mastering a new tune I'd heard in the village as usual, secretly waiting for them to come. I still had yet to tell Zenon how I felt about him. It was just a silly crush, one that wouldn't last.

"Mind if I join you?" Zenon asked with a smile when he saw me, touching his own guitar. He had just visited Beet and taken down a few monsters, and I was flattered he actually bothered to come see me (I was half Vandel, the very thing he was supposed to be ridding the world of).

I nodded, grinning from ear to ear. "I'd love for you to join me. So, what song would you like to play today?" We played together often.

"How about 'I See The Light?'" He asked, walking back towards the village.

My heart skipped a beat. "I'd love to." I agreed.

"By the way," His face turned stern. "What's this Beet said about _both of you_ taking the Mark? You're not doing this for revenge against . . ." He wisely avoided mentioning my sire. "Are you?"

I shook my head. "No, I got over that idea long ago. Okay, I'd still like to give that bastard a nice kick to his prized possessions and Bust him depending on his rank and mine if I ever meet him, _if_ I meet him 'cause I'm not going looking for him, but that's not why I became a Buster. I became a Buster so that I could rid the world of Vandels and help people. Like you. And besides, maybe I can stop what happened to my mother from happening to anyone else."

He shook his head. "You and Beet both." He said, but I had a feeling he was secretly pleased. "Alright, I'll show you how to slay the monsters around here."

I grinned. "Great, I like that idea." He led me to a swamp where the other Zenon Warriors were gathered. He rummaged around in his backpack and extracted what appeared to be a sealing scroll, which he tossed me. I raised an eyebrow. "What's this for? Is this a sealing scroll?"

"Right as usual." He praised. "Yes, it's a sealing scroll. Inside you'll find a weapon, one that suits you, but you'll have to get it out. Only you and Cruss can actually use those dratted things."

My eyebrows shot up as I unsealed a nearly exact real metal replica (because the real thing wasn't actually metal, but metal created from Divine Energy) of the Excillon Blade with a sheath and everything, ready to be strapped to my back. "Care to explain?"

"Don't think I haven't seen the way you eye the Excillon Blade when you think I'm not looking." He grinned. "So, let's find Beet and get the pair of you training. You didn't hear this from me, but Liao is looking for a good squire or two. Maybe if you offered to be the group's squire, you could get a few monster fighting lessons from him."

I grinned. "Now there's an idea." I set my guitar down and waded into the swamp with Beet.

"Loosen up Beet." Zenon instructed. "The teeth will sink in further if you're tense." Beet grudgingly loosened his muscles and to his surprise, it didn't seem to hurt anymore. "Good. Now, hold your spear tightly and swing it across the back of the mouth."

A clam-thing latched onto me. I swung my Excillon Blade replica across the back of its mouth as Beet cheered about having slain a monster.

I merely grinned and set about slaying more of them, Zenon occasionally calling out tips despite Liao-teme's numerous protests that 'brats like us' shouldn't be Busters, most likely conveniently forgetting that he was once a brat like us too, and that once he was in our shoes. We decided to finish up slaying the monsters in the pond, except just as we were finished, Beet's head started to swing. I knew that to be the 'danger sign' for when he was about to fall asleep (Beet's term, not mine). He dropped to the ground a minute later, fast asleep.

Sighing, I dragged him out of the pond and over to where I figured his brother would find him (how could they not be brothers? They looked exactly alike). Then I went to find Zenon (my sleep day was yesterday, so I didn't have to worry about falling asleep on the job), only to discover that he and the other Zenon Warriors were facing down an army of monsters and a Vandel. Normally I would have run away (they were Busters and I would probably just be in the way) but not this time. Now, I was a Vandel Buster, and it was my duty to fight the Vandels.

"Zenon," I begged quietly. "Please let me help. I promise I won't be in the way, and I figured out how to use my Dark Power a few days ago." Dark Power was the opposite of Divine Power and was used by Vandels. Because I'm half Vandel, I could use both Divine and Dark Power. "And now I know how to use my Divine Power. I can help. Please let me."

He looked at me, back at the army of monsters, then at me again, and seemed to make up his mind. "Alright. But please don't get hurt. You're too important to me."

I nodded. "I won't. I promise." We fought for a whole day and night until finally, there was just Beltorze left. When we finally had all the monsters defeated, the Zenon Warriors brought out their Saiga. Zenon's, the Excillon Blade. Liao's, the Burning Lance. Cruss's, the Crown Shield. Bluezam's, the Boltic Axe. Alside's, the Cyclone Gunner.

They declared that they wouldn't let Beltorze get any closer to the village. He just laughed and told us he had no interest in the village. He would apparently go anywhere, as long as the Warriors were there. The thing he wanted from the five of them was their lives. By killing them, he could earn another star. Destroying a whole country wouldn't even earn him one, but killing the Zenon Warriors would. I _really_ wished I could use my Saiga, but sadly, as I was just a level one Buster, I couldn't yet. When I could though I hoped it would be able to channel Dark Power.

"Meaning that the five of your lives are worth more than a country." Beltorze continued with a sick grin. "It should be great news to you as a warrior!"

Zenon scowled. I raised my sword. "It's disgusting!" We shouted, charging at him as a single minded team; one mind, one heart, two blades. "Die, Beltorze!"

He easily dodged our blows, and a full-scale battle between Buster and Vandel quickly ensued.

"Hm," Beltorze mused. "You're one of those two half Vandel upstarts. For a newbie Buster, you certainly are powerful. Maybe I'll get another star if I kill you."

"In your dreams." I spat.

We charged at him again and again, and then Beet just _had_ to call out. "Go Zenon!" He shouted, pumping a fist. "Kick his ass!"

"Damn it Beet!" I yelled. "Get out of here!"

"But you're here." He whined.

I sighed. "And unlike you, I have the advantage of being able to use my Dark Power."

Then, quick as a flash, Beltorze had taken Beet captive and before any of us could do anything had shot a blast of Dark Power through his chest.

"Get ready!" Beltorze shouted gleefully. He then released blasts of Dark Power which tore into the Zenon Warriors. Without even thinking, I tackled the nearest person to the ground. I wouldn't realize until later that it happened to be Zenon. Beltorze said something about how he won and all that was left was to deal the final blow and take their lives.

We all gathered around Beet. He coughed and apologized to Zenon, because had he not called out, Beltorze probably wouldn't have been able to defeat us. Zenon realized that there was a way to save him: give Beet their Saiga. They wouldn't let Zenon give his to Beet because he was still relatively unharmed thanks to me tackling him to the ground (and had knocked him out to make sure he didn't give up his life when he was still pretty much fine), but the rest somehow gave their Saiga, their very lives, to Beet. I bit my lip hard to keep from crying. Beet begged them not to do it and wanted to know why they would do it just for him. Despite the severity of the situation, I had to roll my eyes. "Haven't you looked in the mirror lately? Look at Zenon. Look at you. Can't you see the resemblance? Can't you see that the two of you are brothers?"

"No way!" He gasped. "Zenon . . . is my brother?"

"He wanted you to have a normal life, so he left you with another family when you were just a baby." Cruss-onii-san informed Beet.

"It's not fair." Beet complained as the men I thought of as older brothers all disappeared one by one. "Leaving me out until the very end. You promised that once I became stronger as a Buster you'd take me along. I want to go with you guys."

"Farewell Beet." They chorused, disappearing in a flash of light. And that was the last time I ever saw four of the greatest Busters ever to live.

"Hail and goodbye, Cruss, Bluezam, Liao, Alside, members of the Zenon Warriors, my brothers." I whispered as the balls of light that had been orbiting around Beet's chest disappeared forever.


	17. Pokémon Master Naruto

Pokémon Master Naruto  
Chapter One: Naruto's Song: We Will Be Heroes

_Naruto_

The Forbidden Scroll of Seals: the scroll filled with techniques that had been forbidden for one reason or another.

The Forbidden Scroll of Seals: the scroll I just pretended to steal from Old Man Hokage.

I smirked. "Okay Mizuki-teme, it's time to spring the trap." I hunched over the Scroll, trying to find a good jutsu or three, or four or five, to learn.

The first one was the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

It sounded interesting, so I read the description.

It made solid clones that could actually do jutsus, and everything the clone saw and did came back to the user when the clone dispelled.

Sounded like my kind of technique.

I needed to do a Clone Jutsu to pass anyway, so maybe if I learned it, Iruka-sensei would pass me anyway if I showed it to him (wouldn't that be nice).

With that thought, I got to work on learning the Shadow Clone jutsu.

_Time skip— a few hours later_

I wiped the sweat off my forehead. "Glad I got that down. Let's see what else is on here."

There was the Exploding Shadow Clone Jutsu, which created clones that exploded. I worked on that one a bit before looking at the second thing on the scroll. There were three balls and a handwritten note from— the Fourth?!

_If you're reading this, then you've accepted a challenge that I couldn't meet. These three balls that left the seal hold creatures called Pokémon. I found these three along with the device, called a Pokédex, in some ruins in the mountains of the Land of Fire. From what we learned, they're the last of their kind, or at least in this world. They're said to have powers that are in many ways similar to Shinobi, and in some ways superior. However none of us could summon them. All of us failed the test to see if we were worthy to summon them. Maybe you'll have better luck. Just hold the Pokédex in your hands and it will test you. Best of luck, Namikaze Minato, Konoha's Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage._

Doing as I was told, I took the Pokédex in my hands. My life flashed before my eyes.

After a minute, it spoke. "_You have endured many hardships, and have come out strong. You have earned the right to be called Trainer, Namikaze Naruto._"

I gaped, before the three balls opened on their hinges, and released three beams of white light, which formed three rather large dog like creatures.

"Huh? What are these things? Maybe the Pokédex will have some information." I said, pointing said Pokédex at it to use as a reference.

"_Entei_." It announced, making me jump out of my skin. "_The Volcano Pokémon. Volcanoes erupt when it barks. Unable to contain its sheer power, it races headlong across the land._"

"Entei huh?" I muttered. "Okay, let's see about the next one."

"_Suicune,_" The Pokédex continued. "_The Aurora Pokémon. Said to be the embodiment of the north wind, it can instantly purify filthy murky water_."

"Okay, so we've got Entei, the Volcano Pokémon, and Suicune, the Aurora Pokémon." I repeated. "So then what's the last one?"

I pointed the Pokédex at it again.

"_Raikou, the Thunder Pokémon_." It announced. "_The rain clouds it carries let it fire thunderbolts at will. They said that it descended with lightning._"

"So these three are Entei, Sucuine, and Raikou." I recited. "The Volcano, Aurora, and Thunder Pokémon. They look kind of small though."

I looked at the Pokédex for their height and weight, which said that they were supposed to get a little bigger. From the looks of it, they were almost done growing, maybe half way (they were probably about four and a half feet tall, while they'd _get_ about six feet tall).

"So then they must still be growing." I deduced. "Which means that I'm gonna have to get a lot more food. I'm gonna need a bigger apartment too."

"Naruto!" Iruka-sensei bellowed. "Why did you steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals? Do you have _any_ idea the trouble you're in?"

I snorted. "Sure I do, but I think you should leave now."

Mizuki could be here at any minute, and I didn't want Iruka-sensei getting hurt because of my plan (Jiji had wanted to bust the traitor on the spot, but we needed evidence of wrong doing, and so far, he'd done nothing wrong, so that was why we set this trap up. Besides, I got to learn a new Jutsu in the process, so that was a bonus).

"Look out!" Iruka-sensei cried, shoving me to the ground as a giant shuriken hit the tree near where my head had just been.

I growled. "Mizuki." I spat. "Tricking an Academy student into stealing the Forbidden Scroll of Seals isn't enough for you? Now you want to kill me too?"

"Humph." Mizuki scoffed in a decisively uncaring manner. "So do you want to know why everyone hates you? Why no one likes you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Alright teme." I decided. "I'll bite. Why _does_ everyone hate me?"

"No Mizuki!" Iruka-sensei shouted. "You can't! It's forbidden!"

"Shut up Iruka!" Mizuki snapped. "Naruto, the reason no one likes you is because the Fourth Hokage did not kill the Kyuubi, so instead he settled for sealing it, into you! The Kyuubi has taken over your body! You _are_ the Kyuubi!"

I froze and for the longest time couldn't bring myself to say anything.

"I'm . . . the Kyuubi?" I managed at last. "The Kyuubi took over my body? I guess I really am a demon like the villagers say I am."

"No you're not!" A voice declared.

I blinked. "Huh? Who said that?"

"Us!" Another voice declared. "You know, your _partners_."

"Entei! Suicune! Raikou!" I realized. "You're right, I'm not the Kyuubi, and if anything, this teme is closer to being the Kyuubi than I am. Now let's _get him!_ Charge!"

The three of them charged at Mizuki as I made another clone.

"Punch it." I ordered. Music began to play.

Iruka-sensei looked confused. "How's she going to pull this off?" I heard him mutter. I'd never tried fighting to music before, so this was entirely new.

"Another day, another fight.  
Another chance to make things right (Pokémon).  
We will be strong,  
The way it should be,  
Ready for the challenge,  
You and me."

Ignoring Iruka-sensei's amazed look, I danced around the kunai and shuriken Mizuki threw at me. Just to have some fun, I closed my eyes as Suicune, Entei and Raikou did the same. Together, we all danced to the tune of the music, beating Mizuki up in the process.

"We will be heroes (Pokémon).  
We can change the world if we try (Darkrai).  
I go where you go (Pokémon),  
Forever friends you and I (Darkrai).  
We will be heroes (Pokémon)."

I briefly opened my eyes as Raikou shot a thunderbolt at Mizuki, Suicune charged at him, a jet of water enveloping her and Entei roared, a flame coming from his mouth. They all nearly hit Mizuki, but he dodged at the last second. When he started using Genjutsu, I closed my eyes again so they couldn't trick me.

"The moment's right,  
The time has come,  
For us to stand together as one.  
So take my hand and follow me,  
'Cause it involves our dest-uh-nee."

I smirked. I was doing pretty good with my eyes closed. I didn't even need to open them to know what the teme was doing. Sensing that Mizuki threw more projectiles at me, I danced backwards to the tune of the last three beats.

"We will be heroes (Pokémon).  
We can change the world if we try (Darkrai).  
I go where you go (Pokémon),  
Forever friends you and I (Darkrai).  
We will be heroes (Pokémon)."

I used my Shadow Clones to thoroughly beat Mizuki up, but I wasn't done with him just yet. After all, my song wasn't done yet, thus, the Mizuki beat up fest wasn't done either.

"We will be heroes (Pokémon).  
We can change the world if try (Darkrai).  
I go where you go (Pokémon),  
Forever friends you and I (Darkrai).  
We will be heroes (Pokémon).  
We will be heroes (Pokémon).  
We will be heroes (Pokémon).  
We will be heroes . . .  
Pokémon."

Finally, the impromptu 'Mizuki beat fest' was over. I grinned at Iruka-sensei, very proud of myself for beating Mizuki up without moving out of tune once. He smiled wearily back at me.

"Nice job Naruto-chan." He complimented. "Hey come over here for just a second, would you?"

I blinked. "Um, okay Iruka-sensei. What for?"

"Just come over here." He commanded. "And close your eyes while you're at it."

I shrugged, went over to my sensei, closing my eyes as I was commanded.

I felt my goggles being removed, and something being tied in its place.

Iruka-sensei told me I could open my eyes.

I looked to see that he didn't have his headband on anymore.

"Congratulations Naruto." He said. "You graduate."


	18. A Law That Completely Changes History

A Law That Completely Changes History  
Chapter One: A New Law: Engagement Is Necessary

_Bramblepaw_

Today had been my very first day at Hogwarts, not counting the train ride and the Sorting. Unfortunately, that meant that something rather annoying had to happen: the Engagement Ceremony, which usually took place among the Houses rather than the school. This year, however, was a little different: every ten years, a school wide Engagement Ceremony was to be held and so the un-engaged boys could choose an un-engaged girl from any House they wanted. So that it wasn't completely unfair, the girls had one and only one chance to refuse, a first year couldn't be engaged to anyone more than five years older than them, thank the stars.

You see, around twenty years ago, a law was passed by some stupid pureblood, saying that every witch and wizard of every blood status attending Hogwarts must be engaged by the time they were seventeen. Because of that, the Engagement Ceremony was started. Thankfully, the law stated that a boy could not choose his sister or a girl who was closely related to him. In fact, anyone closer than sixth cousins could not be engaged to eachother to prevent inbreeding.

There was even a hierarchy to the ceremony, or so I had been told by my Clanmates: seventh year boys got first pick because they were the oldest and had waited the longest, plus were running out of time, then sixth, then fifth, then fourth, then third, and finally, second years were only allowed to choose once the other, older boys had chosen.

My older half brother Hawkfrost would be going through the ceremony this year. He wasn't far from the top of the hierarchy, being a fifth year this year, which according to him was what he was waiting for. As second from the top of the hierarchy, he was almost certain to have his choice of whoever it was he wanted as his future mate. His twin sister Mothwing, my older half sister, had already been engaged to the Slytherin Quiddich Captain, Markus Flint. It was rare that a female Clan member was engaged to a non-Clan member. It was slightly more common the other way around, but not really by a very large margin at all.

As Mother once put it "It takes a special kind of non-Clan person to love a Clan member. But if you find someone like that, never let them go, because they're worth holding onto, and worth any and all trouble that might come from being with them."

So here I was, standing in a line next to my twin sister Tawnypaw, waiting for the Ceremony to start, hoping beyond hope that if I had to be chosen this year, it wouldn't be by a total jackass.

Trumpets blared. A song I knew well began to play, and automatically, I began to mock conduct to the tune. The boys entered, seventh years in front, followed by the other years down to the second years. First year boys weren't allowed to participate, for some strange reason.

The song ended and the boys faced us. I picked out a few people I knew. There were the Weasley boys: the twins, Fred and George, who confused people just by existing. There was Percy, who was smart and liked to stick to the rules. The youngest Weasley boy, Ronald, wasn't taking part this year because he was only a first year. His sister, the only Weasley girl for several generations, would come next year and have to take place in this dumb ceremony like all girls.

By the time I had cleared my thoughts, the seventh years were already done. I knew I hadn't been chosen, for one, because I was six years younger than they were, and for another, I had trained myself to respond to my name because I did have a tendency to get lost in my thoughts.

Ignoring the boys who were currently walking up and down the rows, I instead focused on my older half brother Hawkfrost, my own bramble green eyes making contact with his icy blue ones. I still found it ironic that we were both named, in some way, for our eyes.

"_So,_" I began once he opened his telepathic link to me. "_Got someone you have your eye on?_"

All blood siblings in the Clans could speak mind to mind. "_Actually yes. Finally, there are a couple of first year girls with a brain. I was thinking of choosing Hermione Granger. I actually got to talk to her last night— before you ask, kit, I bumped into her on the way out of the Great Hall and we got talking— and she's actually fairly nice, and pretty smart, too. For a Gryffindor._"

Hawkfrost could have been in Slytherin, like me, but instead decided to go into Ravenclaw, for reasons beyond me. With Tawnypaw in Gryffindor and Mothwing in Hufflepuff, that made one of Tigerstar's children in every house. Tigerstar was hailed as a great leader because he left the Nari Clan and took over the Kage Clan when their previous leader and deputy both died. I never knew him, because he left the Nari Clan when I was barely born.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. "_Aniki, would it kill you to admit that Gryffindors are perhaps not all as foolhardy as you would lead everyone to believe?_"

"_Yes._" He said simply, before his name was called. In classic Hawkfrost fashion, he swept up and down the row, making a show of not having decided, before stopping in front of Hermione Granger, who even on this second evening people were calling the Raven in the Lion's Den.

"_How much do you wanna bet he's got this all planned out, down to the last tiny little detail someone else might have overlooked?_" Tawnypaw's dry voice echoed in my mid.

I refrained from snorting as he pulled a ring out of his pocket, proving he did have this planned. "_Sorry nee-chan, that's a sucker's bet. And I'm no sucker._"

"Hermione Granger, first year member of Gryffindor," Hawkfrost began formally, cutting off any reply my twin may have given. "I stand before you in the hopes of becoming your fiancé. I was drawn to your intellect and your willingness to let your words speak louder than your actions, as well as your ability to look past House rivalries. And so I ask you now, Hermione Granger, member of Gryffindor, will you become my fiancé, and quite possibly my future wife?"

Plenty of engagements didn't last once the engaged students graduated for a whole host of reasons, some complicated, some simple, and some purely ridiculous.

Hermione looked Hawkfrost in the eyes, her warm brown gaze meeting his cool blue one and holding it steadily before she answered "I will." And then my brother slid the ring onto her finger before retaking his place in line, his new fiancé standing beside him.

A few more Clan members went, followed by a few so called 'pureblood' boys.

Finally, it was Percy's turn. My mind flashed to the first time we met, during an incident involving a rabid manticore a few years ago when I was just barely out of my kit days.

Once, twice, three times, he walked up and down the row. He nearly stopped at a girl he seemed to have the hots for, Penelope Clearwater, but then seemed to think better of it. Finally, he stopped for real. In front of me. I was more than a little surprised. Okay, so we knew eachother— big deal. I mostly knew him because Mother's house was just on the edge of Nari Clan territory, and bordered the hill he and his brothers liked to use for various purposes.

"Bramblepaw of the Nari Clan, member of Slytherin, I stand before you now in the hopes of becoming your fiancé. I was drawn to the strength of both body and mind you posses, to your willingness to improvise when things go wrong, and your determination to never give up no matter how grave the situation seems." He began, making me blush. "And so I ask you now: will you, Bramblepaw of the Nari Clan, member of Slytherin, become my fiancé?"

Although I hadn't expected this, I met his gaze and held it until he looked away. And then, I uttered the words that would change my life forever and for the better. "I will."


	19. The American Ninja

The American Ninja  
Chapter One: A Little Guy

_Sarah_

I sighed as yet another attempt to enlist in the army failed. I even disguised myself as a boy (I changed my name to Ceren Rogers), and it _still_ didn't work, because I was too skinny. Steve had an array of health problems and he was too skinny, and Sammy had a heart condition and he was too skinny, so he couldn't enlist. I didn't have any health problems, but they thought I was too skinny, and not a soldier.

We went to see a movie, although we really wanted to see the news reel at the beginning. Some loudmouth wouldn't stop badmouthing the news reel, so Steve, Sam and I told him to shut up. He dragged us back out to the alley and beat us up, and to make matters worse, he wasn't the type to care if his targets were boys or girls as long as he got retribution for us standing up to him. He was definitely a big bully. I hate bullies. Thankfully, Bucky intervened and saved us from a near certain trip to the healer— I mean the doctor. However, this only served to rub it in our faces that we couldn't enlist and he could, because he was now Sergeant James Barnes, a member of the one hundred and seventh division in the United States' Army.

That only made me scowl even deeper.

"We had him on the ropes." I claimed as usual.

He raised an eyebrow at my latest form. "Right, right."

I huffed. "Go ahead, tell me different. I'll still keep trying."

Bucky shook his head. "I don't get why you keep trying to enlist."

"Because," Steve said. "When all these people are serving our country—"

Sam cut him off. "How can we do any less? Besides, our fathers were heroes."

Our friend rolled his eyes. "Yes, the Greek speaking heroes she always told you about."

When she was alive, Mom always admitted that we had different fathers, men speaking—

"They were real." Steve insisted, interrupting my thoughts. "Mom wouldn't lie. Have you forgotten the number of times she nearly took my head off for lying about bullies?"

Our friend sighed. "Okay, you do have a good point," He admitted. "But still. How do you know it wasn't just a game or something, something to tell you about your fathers when you needed the information to be happy?" We admitted that we didn't, but still. Mom always had a faraway look in her eyes when she talked about them, so that made me believe they were real. Besides that, she was usually brutally honest to the point that it sometimes hurt our feelings.

That night, Bucky took us to a future technology fair on a "double date" with Steve.

I tagged along because I had nothing better to do.

Sam probably just wanted to annoy Steve. Despite only being seventeen (since April), I had already graduated from high school, because, like Sam, my older brother and self proclaimed 'forgettable one' I worked my ass off and forced myself to understand what the seniors were learning when I was just a sophomore.

Sam did the same thing and graduated when Steve did, three years ago.

The show featured a car that could levitate. I thought it was boring, so I pulled out my latest Naruto manga. Next to me, Steve, my oldest brother, sighed. "Imouto, what you see in those things I'll never know. It's not even written in English!"

I shrugged. "So? Sammy likes 'em too."

"And Sam's the forgettable one." My oldest brother shot back.

"And he likes being the forgettable one." I retorted. He claimed that you'd remember me because of my temper (I was trying to work on controlling it with limited success) and you'd remember Steve because of how mature he seemed, but Sam just kind of seemed to fade into the background. Most people got indignant and take drastic measures (drastic times call for drastic measures) to make themselves be remembered and noticed, even if it was in a negative way (most people seemed to think that a negative reputation was better than fading into the background and having no reputation at all). However, Sam, on the other hand, he liked fading into the background. For one it helped him get revenge on bullies and no one would ever suspect it was him, not someone else. After all, how could some stupid loser with no reputation prank the biggest bully in the whole school and get away with it, and still never be found, even several years later? Or at least that was what everyone thought. No one ever guessed Sam did.

"That's right." Sam agreed cheerfully, smiling.

Steve sighed. "I hate it when you two use that against me."

"Underneath the underneath Ani-ue." Sam and I taunted in unison.

Steve sighed again. "I hate it when you two use that against me." He repeated.

We just beamed at him. He always hated it when we used obscure ninja things against him, like 'a ninja must look underneath the underneath,' or 'strong ninja embrace family connections and don't hate pesky siblings,' and of course, strong ninja don't cry and insert whatever it is that strong ninjas don't do).

And there was the 'don't need candy' incident that Steve and I were forever reminding Sam of, because it was too funny. It happened right after Mom died. When we first got to the orphanage, he claimed that strong ninja didn't cry and need candy, and then a few hours later, we caught him stealing candy from the orphanage matron's stash.

It was so funny we teased him about it for the next year every day, and even now we still liked to tease him about it. It was too funny not to.

We decided that since it was a festival (I read so many books set in the time of knights when fairs didn't really exist, so I called a fair a festival), we would try to enlist. I knew my chances of getting in were really low, because I was a girl after all, but even if I didn't want to serve my country or thought I could do better at home (which I didn't), I would still try to enlist. When our mom died, about twelve years ago when I was five, Sam was seven and Steve was nine, we all made a promise that we would always be together.

_Flashback_

Steve wiped his eyes. "We've got to be brave now." He announced once the funeral was over and we were alone in the graveyard, just the three of us standing by our now dead mother's grave. "Mom's gone, so it's up to me to take care of you guys."

"Big brothers," I spoke up hesitantly, being only five with none of my future temper. "I think we should make a promise to eachother that we'll always be together."

"I think so too." Sam added.

We formed a sort of circle and put our hands in the middle, and we made our promise to eachother, that we would always be together.

For now and forever, through the good and the bad, for the better or worse, and no matter what happens from this day on, my place is at your side. Always.

That was the promise we stuck by. It became our code, our nindo, what we lived for, and nothing else mattered but keeping our promise.

And to seal our promise, Sam found a sharp rock somewhere and we cut our hands open, the cuts looking like an equilateral triangle, or at least as much as one as Sam could make at seven. Sam said that he read in a book if you were really serious about something, you made a blood oath, whatever that was. Then we pressed our bleeding hands together and sealed the promise that, little did we know, would last for over eighty years.

_End flashback_

"What you thinking about imouto?" Sammy asked, jolting me out of my flashback.

I shrugged. "I guess I was just thinking about our promise, the one we made all those years ago when Mom died." I bit back tears and let my face fall into an emotionless mask as I held up my hand to show the triangle mark it somehow still bore, even after twelve years.

"Don't worry about it." Steve said. "We still have eachother, right?"

I nodded. "True. We do have eachother."

An old man came in as we were waiting to be examined. He asked us if we wanted to kill Nazis. Steve asked if it was a test. I rolled my eyes (only Steve would ask that question), but was shocked when the guy actually said it was. I expected him to say it wasn't a test.

I stood up. "I don't _want_ to kill anyone." I said before Steve or Sam could. "I know I probably will have to, but all I really want is to be a hero, like my father, and to defend my country with every last breath I take. However, if someone dares threaten my brothers, I won't hesitate to kill them. Anyone who wants to hurt _my_ precious people will do so only after stepping over my dead body! I hate fighting for no reason, and bullies for that matter."

Sam stood up next. "I agree with my imouto." He announced. "I won't kill anyone unless I really have to, but if some teme wants to hurt Imouto or Ani-ue, they'll have to go through me long before that'll happen. I think Imouto hates bullies the most, but I don't particularly care for them, and I know Ani-ue doesn't either. Right Ani-ue?"

Steve nodded and stood up. "Right. I don't like bullies and I really don't like fighting for no good reason. Besides, with all of those guys out there laying down their lives, what gives me the right to do any less? Besides, I may never meet my father if I don't prove that I'm a hero." He added. "And I really, really want to meet my father one day."

"Do the three of you have different fathers?" The old man noticed.

We exchanged grins. "Yup. We're only half siblings." We answered in unison. I was surprised he actually picked up on that. Not many people actually did.

"Well with so many big guys already out there fighting," I expected him to say we didn't stand a chance or something, but boy was I wrong. "Maybe what we need is a little guy."


	20. Witch And Pegasus Delivery Service

Witch And Pegasus Delivery Service  
Chapter One: Leaving Home For A Year

_Kikyo_

As was typical for us, Kiki, Kagome, Sango, Rin, Saiyo and I sat outside with our Pegasai, Pride, Honor, Star, Legacy, Glory and Champion, my Pegasus. According to the radio, it was going to be a full moon tonight, which meant we could leave tonight.

"Yes!" I cheered. "What do you say Champion?"

"I say go for it!" My bonded Pegasus and best friend declared. "We've only been waiting for this for three weeks, though it feels like longer. Man, being the youngest really does stink!"

I laughed. "I agree."

When a witch turns thirteen, she must leave home for a year to practice a special skill, whether it's flying, potion making, fortune telling, or something completely different. My only skills were flying (well, riding) and elemental manipulation.

I'd only turned thirteen around three weeks ago, but it was in the middle of the month and the full moon had already passed, and as a witch could only leave on a full moon, we had to wait since Mom wanted us to stay together. I don't know why. Maybe it was because with the exception of Kiki, all of us were adopted, or maybe it was because she didn't want us all going to different cities with hardly any skills, but for some reason she wanted us to stick together.

We raced back to tell Mom, the Pegasai going to see our aunt Ashley to tell their mom, our aunt Wonder (she was as much of an aunt to us as Ashley-oba-san was), a successful racehorse hailed for several Triple Crown victories.

Mom was reluctant to let us go, but she told us that since we had eachother and our Pegasai, she supposed we could leave. Jiji, Mom's worrywart black cat familiar, didn't want us to and wanted to wait for another month, until Saiyo, ever the smart mouth, shot back that if we kept waiting, all of us would be fourteen, or fifteen, by the time we actually left.

Champion and I wouldn't turn fourteen for almost another year.

You see, Champion and I were somehow born on the exact same day. While normal horses would be really old, far too old to do much of anything but stand out in the pasture or breed, Pegasai aged about as fast as humans did. No one knew quite why, though some had a theory that it had something to do with their magic. Actually, though only me and Champion were born on the same day, somehow. Even I'm not sure exactly how it happened.

Wonder's Pride was Rin's bonded Pegasus, and our resident bombproof babysitting horse. It didn't matter the rider, he would let anyone and everyone ride, and I mean anyone. He was second the oldest, and together they controlled the Earth element.

Wonder's Star was Sango's bonded Pegasus. He wasn't quite as bombproof as Pride, preferring older and more experienced riders to younger or less experienced riders, but at least he didn't buck them off. He was the third oldest, and together they controlled the Water element.

Wonder's Legacy was Kagome's bonded Pegasus, and the most in the middle as far as being a bomb or bombproof horse. He didn't especially like other riders, but unlike Honor he would tolerate them and wouldn't try his absolute best to buck them off. He was the third youngest, and together, they controlled the Wind element.

Wonder's Honor was Saiyo's bonded Pegasus, and frankly she was the bomb horse compared to Pride and somewhat Star's bombproof-ness. Honor, unlike her siblings, would buck anyone other than Saiyo off who tried to ride. She was the second youngest, and somehow was born only a day before Saiyo, and together they controlled the Fire element.

Wonder's Champion was my bonded Pegasus, and like Legacy he didn't really like other riders. He might try to buck them off, or he might not depending on his mood, barring Aunt Ashley of course. He would never buck her off, because she was his dam, or mother's rider. He was the youngest, and together we controlled the Lightning element.

Unlike the rest of us, while she did have a Pegasus, Kiki didn't control an element. Instead, she had healing magic. She could heal _any_ wound, near fatal or not. Wonder's Glory, her familiar, helped her with the more difficult healings. She was also a jumper, unlike her siblings. She was amazing at it too. No one could match her grace. Kiki wanted to jump her in all sorts of jumping competitions, such as steeplechases, once we completed our training year.

Wonder, mother of our Pegasai and a blue hen (meaning all of her foals were very successful on the racetrack) and her rider, our aunt Ashley were known for one thing above all in the witch community: they had raced in several Triple Crown races, and although they had never managed to take the crown itself, they did well in every race they rode in.

Unlike the normal Triple Crown, any Pegasus was allowed to race in the Derby, not just three year olds. That was a rule Champion and I would forever be thankful for.

Champion had raced in the Triple Crown as well, though neither he, Pride, Star, Honor, nor Legacy had won it. When I got old enough to apply for my Jockey's license (just one more year because generally witches were considered of age once they completed their year of training) I fully intended to ride him to a Triple Crown victory against his siblings, and mine for that matter. Currently that was my dream, my greatest ambition.

For as long as I can remember, Champion and I have been overshadowed by our older siblings' accomplishments. They'd won an lot of important races that Champion had yet to win. However, we both agreed that with me as his rider, nothing would stand in our way.

Dad called everyone up to tell him we were leaving tonight as we packed everything we needed. We also had an additional bag filled with sealing scrolls which contained extra tack and supplies (bridles, reins, saddles, brushes, hoof picks, and just about anything else we might need to take care of our Pegasai). Finally, once it was dark, everyone gathered outside to see us off. I was pretty surprised that even our aunt Ashley was there. Nine times out of ten, she had something she had to do when we invited her over (although what I had absolute no idea).

Dad called everyone to let them know we were leaving tonight. Everyone, even our aunt Ashley who usually had something to do around the farm, turned out to see us off.

"Hold on a second," Aunt Ashley spoke up. "Before you go, I have something for you." She pressed a wrapped parcel into each of our hands.

Mine was wrapped in dark blue, Saiyo's in dark red, Rin's in dark green, Sango's in dark pink, Kiki's in dark purple, and Kagome's in dark gray. I unwrapped mine and gasped. "Racing silks!" Looking at them, I saw why our silks were wrapped in different colors: because they reflected the main color of our silks. I had to wonder if this was a rider tradition or something, because Aunt Ashley was wearing her own racing silks, which were beige colored, emblazoned with a black star on the back. Well that was pretty cool.

Mine were dark blue, emblazoned with the symbol for Uzushiogakure (the village hidden in the whirlpools, something from my favorite manga series) in bright blue.

Saiyo's were dark red, emblazoned with the symbol for Konohagakure (the village hidden in the leaves, another village from the manga series Naruto) in bright red.

Rin's were dark green, emblazoned with the symbol for Iwagakure (the village hidden in the rocks, Konoha's rival village) in bright green.

Sango's were dark pink, emblazoned with the symbol for Kumogakure (the village hidden in the clouds, known for its swordsmen) in bright pink.

Kagome's were dark grey, emblazoned with the symbol for Sunagakure (the village hidden in the sand, a village that was basically a desert) in bright gray.

Kiki's were dark purple, and emblazoned with the symbol for Kirigakure (the village hidden in the mist, the final major hidden village in Naruto) in lavender.

Kiki was the first to recover. "Thank you oba-san!" She exclaimed happily.

"You're quite welcome Kiki-chan, you're quite welcome." Aunt Ashley replied with a grin.

Rin was the next to recover her voice. "How did you know our favorite villages?"

Sango snorted. "How else? She probably asked Kaa-san and Tou-san."

Saiyo rolled her eyes. "Doubtful. She probably asked the Pegasai."

"Yes, or she had Wonder-oba-san ask them." Kagome added.

"Got it one Kagome-chan." Aunt Ashley admitted. "I knew your mom and dad would know I was planning something if I asked them, so I had Wonder ask your Pegasai."

"Nice plan." I complimented. "Very Shinobi-like."

I quickly stripped off the shirt I was wearing (riders don't wear dresses) and stuffed it into my saddle bag before putting on my racing silks. I absentmindedly noticed my siblings doing the same. I also noted that emblazoned on the back were the elements we controlled in the same colors as the village symbols: water for Star and Sango, fire for Honor and Saiyo, earth for Pride and Rin, wind for Legacy and Kagome, and lightning for Champion and I. Kiki's had the Caduceus, two snakes intertwined on a winged staff, the symbol for medicine and healing, on the back, since she and Glory didn't control an element, and instead were healers (I highly doubted they'd ever really be fighters).

Aunt Ashley grinned and nodded approvingly as she surveyed us. "_Now_ you look like riders. But anyway, if we keep yacking, the night will be over and you'll have to wait another month."

"Too right." Kaa-san muttered. "Have a safe trip girls."

"Hai Kaa-san!" We shouted, snapping to a mock salute.

"Riders, mount up." Oba-san commanded.

"Yes ma'am!" Kiki, Kagome, Rin, Sango, Saiyo and I bellowed as one. It was something of a habit. Since most of us planned to be jockeys when we were older, she had instructed us in everything we needed to know. While doing so, she had this 'it's my way' attitude. Not it's my way or the highway, because with her there _was_ no highway option. It was her way or her way.

She also taught Kiki and Glory to jump. I'm still not sure how she did it because when they started they could hardly clear a jump without knocking at least one of the poles off, but somehow, Aunt Ashley managed to teach them to jump effortlessly. It was amazing to see.

"Say, you guys wanna make this a race?" I grinned. "Don't worry Kiki-nee-chan, you don't have to participate if you don't want to."

Kiki breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." She and Glory were _not_ racers at all. They just couldn't match the same speed that the rest of us racers had.

Glory was kind of the odd one out, since all of Wonder's other foals were racers.

"No racing until you're out of my sight." Mom ordered sternly. We grinned sheepishly and promised we wouldn't race yet. "Now it's time to get going. Have fun and make sure you stay together, and more importantly, _stay safe._ I'll not hear of any accidents because you were being reckless. Is that clear, all of you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes Mom."

"Good. On the whistle." Aunt Ashley commanded. "Three, two, one," She let loose a sharp, shrill blast on her whistle. If I weren't so used to hearing it, I would have covered my ears. "Fly!"

As one, the Pegasai all lifted off with a great flap of their wings.

I honestly had to contain a squeal of joy as the house slowly became smaller and smaller, until it was completely out of sight.

We had finally left home at long last, and now nothing was going to stop us from becoming the very best witches that we possibly could be.

No matter what.


	21. Winged Warriors Of Uranus

Winged Warriors of Uranus  
Chapter One: Dreams of the Past

_Nyra_

Again?_ I moaned, yet another farsighted dream of the past filling my head as I slept. As usual, I found myself in the royal Uranian palace, with a boy named Kludd._

"_My prince." I teased as I dipped a curtsey._

_Kludd groaned. "You know I wish you wouldn't call me that." He grumbled._

_I rolled my eyes as only I could. My brother/cousin claimed no one rolled their eyes like I did. "And that is precisely why I do it." I retorted, smiling. "To push your buttons."_

_He flipped me off before an evil look appeared. He mock bowed, going as deep as he could for comical effect. "My princess." He teased._

_I beamed, not letting him annoy me, and channeled one Hatake Kakashi. "Hm, did you say something?" I grinned before adding something else as he groaned. "Thank you, thank you, I know I'm the greatest. Kludd-chan."_

_Sure, pissing off the prince of Earth probably wasn't my smartest idea. But Kludd was one of my oldest friends as well as my secret boyfriend. He knew I was only teasing, and besides, getting him to focus on nothing but getting his revenge in an annoyingly creative ways, he wouldn't focus on his upcoming Engagement Ceremony in just two short weeks, and the fact that he _still_ didn't know who his parents had picked for his bride. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy pissing him off._

_Sure enough, my secret boyfriend's face contorted into a look of mock rage. He hated being called Kludd-chan. "Oh I'm gonna get you Nyra!"_

_I unfolded my Goshawk wings and took to the air. "Missed me." I taunted. He swung at me. I dodged. "Missed me. Now you gotta—" He swung again. "Kiss me."_

_He grinned evilly. "Oh you want a kiss do you? Well I think that that can be arranged."_

_I grinned back. "You'll have to catch me first." I shot back. "Come on! I _dare_ you to catch me, but you're probably too slow."_

_The scene warped and changed. Two weeks later, Kludd and I stood just outside the main room of a beautiful chapel on Earth. However, we were both way, _way_ too nervous about what was happening to fully enjoy the beauty. We still had no idea who his parents had betrothed him to._

"Welcome," _The announcer's voice boomed. _"Peasants, nobles, and merchants alike, to the Engagement Ceremony of Prince Kludd!"

_I paced nervously. "Damn it. Why did you parents have to do this to us? I thought they approved of our relationship."_

_Kludd shrugged. "I don't know. I thought they did too, but they might have just been indulging us and letting us think they approved when really they didn't. Or it might have been the council who said betroth me to Skench-teme or else. Stupid council bastards."_

_Someone laid a hand on my shoulder, causing me to jump. "You're pretty nervous about this, aren't you Nyra-nee-chan?" That someone commented. They seemed to roll their eyes at the idea. "If nii-san's bride is who we think it is, well then, your relationship is over for good. Stupid Skench-teme. She shouldn't even be in the running. She doesn't even have noble blood! I don't know why they don't just choose you instead, because unlike Skench-teme, you not only have Uranian royal blood, but you also are the daughter of Kumo's Raikage. You're practically twice royal. _And_ you're the Jinchuriki of the ten tailed owl. What's it called again, the Juubi no Fukuro or something like that?"_

_I turned around, about ready to throw the hand from here to Timbuktu when I realized there were only two people in the entire solar system who called me nee-chan: Soren, Kludd's little brother, and Eglantine, his younger sister. I raised an eyebrow. "Soren, haven't I told you not to sneak up on me again? What are you doing here anyway? And where's Eglantine-imouto? Did said Eglantine-imouto run off on you again? How is it that she manages to do this?"_

"_Better yet," Kludd added. "How many times has she ran off on you?"_

_Soren channeled our friend from Earth, Hyuuga Hinata, and poked his fingers together. He seemed to think the floor was very interesting all of the sudden. "Well . . . maybe." He refused to tell us how many times Eglantine had run off on him._

_I rolled my eyes at his answer. "Eglantine-imouto has given Soren-otouto the slip no less than one thousand eight hundred and thirty one times if you count this time."_

"_Eight hundred and thirty two," Soren corrected. "But don't change the subject."_

_I laughed. "One thousand, eight hundred and thirty two times, in what? Two years? Damn Soren-otouto, that's just sad, you know that?"_

"_That's roughly two to three times a day!" Kludd added after doing the calculations in his head. "Otouto, if I had even one cinder from every time she ran off on you, I'd be filthy stinking rich— without being a prince!" He looked down, did a couple of quick calculations on his fingers, and looked at his brother. "That's roughly two and a half times a day that she's given you the slip. That's just _sad_ otouto, just sad."_

_For some reason, in this solar system, the coins were all named after coals. First were the cinders. In real life, they weren't much help and were more of an annoyance than anything else. The coin was made of bronze and generally found in the purses of peasants and not very successful merchants. Then were the ground coals. In real life, they were half way decent coals that smiths used to start their fires before they got them going good enough to use their hottest coals. The coins were made of silver and found in the purses of lower ranked nobles and successful merchants. Finally, there were the bonk coals. Those were the hottest coals caught in the air, on the fly, by only the best and most talented coilers, or coal catchers. They were used smiths' hottest fires. The coins were made of gold, and after a special hardening spell, they were found in the purses of high ranking nobles and royalty. The hardening spell they used I didn't know, sadly._

_Before I could agree with Kludd's statement, the announcer called for him. I gave him a little push when he didn't move._

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you— Prince Kludd!"_ The announcer boomed. I really wanted to strangle him. _"And now, it's the moment you've all been waiting for! Presenting the woman who will rule by Kludd's side, the one, the only, the winged princess of the night— Nyra!"

_Okay, no strangling then. So this was what Stryker, my first cousin, and my uncle were so gleeful about last night. I made a mental note to strangle them both for making me so worried. So with a grin that nothing could wipe off my face, I unfolded my wings and made a grand swooping entrance and lighted down beside my boyfriend. He looked as shocked, and as happy, as I felt._

_Some noble went through the engagement ceremony while I listened with half an ear. Afterwards, Soren, Kludd and Eglantine's parents, the rulers of Earth, wanted to see all of us, although Eglantine was still Glaux only knew where, so that wasn't happening._

"_Oh dear," The queen sighed as she noted her daughter's absence. "I don't suppose you know where to find her Soren-chan?"_

"_Mother!" Soren complained. "Must you really call me that in front of everyone?"_

_I gave a very unladylike cough. "Soren-otouto, I don't think this is the time for that. We've got to find Eglantine-imouto. I think she went to Neptune."_

"_Neptune?" The king echoed, bewildered. "Why there?" I shrugged, but before I could answer, sunlight shot through the dream, waking me up._

I groaned as I sat up. I looked at my clock. It was six exactly, so that left me just enough time to go hunting. I donned my bow and quiver after getting dressed and flew out the door without bothering to lock it. The villagers had long since destroyed it anyway. Movement caught my eye. It was a trio of rabbits, still plump from summer. They were perfect breakfast for Naruto and I, and Stryker, my cousin if he showed up as he often did on days when he didn't have missions with his team. I nocked three arrows, one right after another and fired. They went right through the eyes. Three perfect catches.


	22. Princess Of Earth

Princess of Earth  
Chapter One: Chewing Out

_Amayo_

As usual, I found myself in a Pokéringer contest with Starblaze.

Of course it wasn't a very challenging contest, since I couldn't join in, but oh well. I'd just have to make due. A little competition in the afternoon was music to my ears, especially since my brother was never around anymore. He was always my biggest competition, aside from Malachite. Malachite was the hardest person to piss off I had ever met, and let me tell you, that's really saying something (I had a talent for pissing people off).

"Starblaze, dive!" I yelled to my small best friend, slashing my hand downward. That was our prearranged for 'dive' signal should she not be able to hear me.

"Right!" She called back.

It was a risky move, but Starblaze and I had practiced it time and again, so we knew how to pull it off perfectly. I seriously wished I could be out there with her though. On my command, Starblaze folded her wings and dove towards the ground.

"Now, pull up and grab it!" I called just as she was about to hit the ground, bending my arm at a ninety degree angle before jerking upwards. Starblaze unfolded her wings and pulled up, then flew towards the balloon where the ring was suspended.

The others followed her, but Starblaze skillfully dodged them. She grabbed the ring in her mouth, and flew towards the goal, then put it in.

As soon as she was declared the winner, she flew towards me at a speed that, to anyone but me, my best friends, and maybe Darien, would look like one big white blur.

I just grinned and stretched my arms out, catching her just below the wings as I spun her around again and again. You see, Starblaze was pretty small for a Lugia. She and I were born at the same time, and she'd pretty much always been the same size.

She stands at about a foot or maybe a foot and a couple of inches high, with a wingspan of four feet. From what I can guess, she would never get any bigger, but that was okay with me.

It works for us, because we make it work. She was small, yes, but she was far more mobile than a normal Lugia, and infinitely many times faster.

Very few could match her speed, and her wing work was something to be admired.

Her power, well it wasn't quite as good as a normal full sized Lugia's would be, but I guess it's the whole speed or power but not both sort of thing.

Besides, she had a lot of concentrated power, meaning she can focus all of it into one deadly attack. So it leaves her drained afterwards? Big deal.

It's like they say, concentration, not strength.

"Good work Starblaze." I praised as I rubbed her head.

_Thank you, I know._ She replied in my mind.

"Hey Squirt." I heard a voice behind me as Starblaze took flight to go do whatever it is was she did when I wasn't around. I didn't need to turn around to know whose voice it was.

"Shut it Darien." I growled out through clenched teeth, my voice taking on a warning note. "Were you not my brother, I'd pound you into a pulp. Or I'd let Zoycite-nee-chan go at you, and you know what'll happen if I do."

I didn't need to see him to know he winced and shrugged.

I swear my brother and I had some sort of psychic connection to eachother. Or at least, I did to him. He didn't really to me anymore.

"I know you would." He replied. His voice held a hint of a smirk. "And Zoycite, well tell her I've been practicing, and she won't be able to kick me in the soft spot so easily this time."

Zoycite loved to fight dirty. Her favorite technique in fact was to kick a guy the one place no male should be kicked.

I turned around and raised my eyebrows. "Where are you going without me this time?" I asked. He only smirked when he wanted to brag about something.

His voice took on this mock hurt sort of tone. "Whatever makes you think I'm going somewhere without you, little sister?"

I growled, but ignored the little sister comment. "You only get that smirk-y sorta voice when you want to brag, and that _usually _means that you get to go somewhere that I don't. Come on, tell." I demanded playfully. He wrapped his strong arms around me.

"Well . . ." He began, drawing the word out.

"Spit it out already!" I snapped. I hated it when he started torturing me like this. It was so annoying. He still said nothing. "Come on, Darien." I begged. "Tell me already! Please?"

He grinned. "Ah, you said the _magic _word Amayo-imouto."

I groaned and slapped my head. "Just tell me, before I'm tempted to whap and or beat you up with the flat of my blade." I said, throwing his arms off of me and drawing said blade for emphasis. "Well, or I could do what Zoycite-nee-chan always does and kick you in the soft spot. That could work." Zoycite-nee loved to play dirty.

"All right, all right." He said, slowly raising his hands into the air in surrender, careful not to disturb Aniken, the Ho-oh perched on his shoulder. "I'll tell you. Geez, I swear you've been spending way too much time around that sadist we so lovingly call Zoycite."

I grinned. "Good. You'd better." I sheathed my sword, but let my hand rest on the hilt, should I decide he needed a good whapping with it. "And on the contrary, dear brother, I haven't been spending too much time around Zoycite. In fact, I haven't been spending _enough_ around her."

Darien sighed and shook his head. "Whatever you say Amayo. Okay, so you know the Elemental Nations on Earth?" He began by way of explanation.

I nodded. "And what of them?"

"Well, I'm going to Konoha to ask that they help us against Beryl."

I sighed. "Fantastic." I muttered under my breath.

Lately it was always Beryl this and Serenity that. Darien never had any time for me anymore. I suppose I was probably being selfish, but before he was named heir and betrothed to Serenity, we did everything together. And lately, when he wasn't talking about Beryl, he was talking about, oh gee, guess who? _Serenity_.

"What's with the sigh little sister?"

I glared at him and unsheathed my sword again.

He put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay." He said defensively, glaring a little at me. "So what'd you sigh for Amayo-chan?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You know, I'm quite disappointed in you Darien." I teased lightly. "You used to be able to read me like an open book. But then again, I suppose always hanging out with Serenity-_hime_ and preparing for war all the time has addled your once keen senses. Such a pity." And I meant every word of it.

He winced. He could tell I put a special skeptical emphasis on the title, because I didn't really consider her to be anything but the one who stole my brother's time.

I'd hit him right where it hurt, even though I had only been teasing. Well okay, so by the end I wasn't teasing so much anymore, but still. Darien knew I didn't like it that he spent so much time with Serenity, and never any with me anymore, and that when he wasn't spending his time with Serenity, he was preparing for war with Beryl and the Negaverse.

He sighed. "Mother's looking for you." He said tonelessly.

I nearly groaned aloud. Mother wanting me usually meant I was in trouble for some reason or another. "Whatever." I groaned. "By the way, when we get done do you and Aniken want to have a Pokéringer contest 'gainst me and Starblaze just like old times?"

"Can't." He replied regretfully, though I doubted he really was. "I promised Serenity I'd go see her before I left. Maybe some other time. I promise."

Finally having lost my patience, I slapped my big brother.

"Serenity this," I mocked with an uncharacteristic sneer. "Beryl that. When you're not with Serenity, you're with the generals preparing for war with Beryl. You never have any time for me anymore, and you've even lost your ability to read me like you used to. And you call yourself my big brother. You always make promises, and then you make up an excuse as to why you can't keep them, and it's usually having to spend time with Serenity, or prepare for war. Frankly, Malachite Jedite and Neflite have been better big brothers than _you_ lately, and Zoycite is the best big sister ever despite being a total sadist, and Serenity will never replace her, and they're not even related to me by blood, unlike a certain _someone_ I could name."

"Amayo!" Darien gasped, shocked.

Without waiting for him to continue, I turned on my heel and snapped my fingers, signaling Starblaze to land on my shoulder. She did so and rubbed up against my cheek.

"Come on Starblaze." I said coldly, trying not to cry at the fact that my brother never wanted to spend time with me anymore and instead always wanted to spend it with his girlfriend. "Let's go find someone who actually wants to spend time with us."


	23. Defender Of The Night

Defender of the Night  
Chapter One: Umbreon Knight

_Melody_

I sat, bored, in battle class, wishing that something, anything, interesting would happen. I didn't even care that I got to battle Gold, a snobby, stuck up rich kid. I beat him in three minutes and seven seconds (I was timing thanks to a transparent Shadow Clone and a Shadow Clone transformed into a stopwatch).

**Damn it I'm bored.** I complained to Tsuki over our mental link compliments of Hikari, my best friend Sakura's Espeon.

**So deal with it.** Tsuki shot back. **You know you have to get a good grade in this class if you want to be a coordinator. Like in college, you've gotta pass your generals before you can get onto the stuff you really want to study.** In class we always used our mental link so that no one actually knew we were talking. It sure came in handy.

**And what would **_**you**_** know about college?** I accused. **You've never been to college, nor have I. You don't know anything about it.**

**Actually, I know more than you do.** She sang.

I growled under my breath. **I hate you.**

She wagged her tail. **Love you too.**

"Melody!" The teacher, Mrs. Olbeck, snapped. "Would you kindly tell me what we're discussing, if you've been paying attention?"

I rolled my eyes. "Dark types, strengths and weaknesses. They are: strong against Psychic and Ghost, but weak against Fighting, Fairy, and Bug. A good example of a straight Dark type would be Umbreon, also known as the Moonlight Pokemon which evolves from Eevee, also known as the Evolution Pokemon." I answered. I could recite Dark type strengths and weaknesses in my sleep, and had done it once according to Sakura, who had asked me, thinking I was still awake (she knew I was asleep because about two seconds after I told her I rolled over and gave a giant snore, or something to that effect; to this day, she still wouldn't stop teasing me about it, calling it the 'strengths and weaknesses' incident).

Mrs. Olbeck sighed and glared at me. "Fine."

She always hated it that I could recite strengths and weaknesses (especially Dark types, my first and only Pokémon in accordance to school rules being an Umbreon) so well, even though I never paid any attention in class, because thanks to mine and Tsuki's mental link, we could think up a thousand different ways to beat an opponent.

That was why I never bothered to pay attention in class. I felt that battle class (along with Pokemon Care and Trainer Survival, two more subjects I had to take because I was a first year student despite already knowing plenty about both subjects) was useless and I could hone mine and Tsuki's skills in other, more efficient ways that didn't involve sitting in a classroom bored for an hour every day. I would have skived like I did Trainer Survival and Pokémon Care, but Mrs. Olbeck always, always, managed to find me no matter where I hid. I'd even hid in a broom closet, and she still found me. The only place I hadn't tried hiding was the sewers, though I certainly planned to. Maybe my teme teacher wouldn't catch me if I did hide in the sewers.

Finally, class was over. I hung back for a second, waiting for Sakura. Sakura, my redheaded best friend, was Hikari's trainer, and it was thanks to Hikari that Tsuki and I could speak mind to mind, not to mention the fact that we could both understand Pokémon. Sakura could practically be my twin sister or something, barring, of course, the fact that we had different birthdays and that we looked absolutely nothing alike.

"Yo." The subject of my thoughts greeted, bopping me on the head. "How many times do I have to tell you not to wait for me? You could be late for class!"

"Yes, and the world ends if I'm late for class." I scoffed.

My best friend groaned. "I don't get why you don't even care about your classes."

I sighed. "Because, I'm not interested in very many of them. The only interesting class I have is my history class, and even that's not really what I was hoping for. I wanted a class that gave the history of something other than the school."

"Amen to that." Tsuki agreed. Both of us were major history geeks. Like Trainer like Pokémon I guess. "It's a shame we first years aren't allowed to take the higher level history classes. I would love to take one of those. That would be so much fun! Stupid rules."

Hikari rolled her eyes. "History geek."

"Damn straight!" We declared in unison. I pumped a fist.

Sakura shook her head. "What you two see in history, I'll never know."

"And what you see in Math I'll never know." I countered.

"Touché Melody." Sakura surrendered. "Anyway, what's your next class?"

"Trainer Survival." I moaned mournfully. The principal had caught onto the fact that I'd been skiving, so I had to go sadly. "Least favorite class. I already know that stuff."

"I've got Pokémon Care, unfortunately." Sakura told me. "And this is where we split, so see ya." She then ran off before I had the chance to tell her I'd see her later.

I fell asleep in Trainer Survival. I usually did, not that the teacher ever seemed to notice. He just droned on and on and on about one topic: what to eat and what not to eat. It was interesting the first day, but after that, it became clear he never talked about anything else. Before going to sleep I automatically tightened the two belts made of cargo material that were wrapped around my wrists. The green one didn't matter. It just was there because I liked it and wanted to have cargo belts on both wrists, but the grey one was the really important one.

Why?

Well I suppose I should say it's not the belt itself that important, but what it concealed: a perfect eighth note birthmark. Everyone accused me of having tattooed it there, when I'd had it for as long as I could remember. Most people seemed to think I was lying and I'd had it tattooed because my favorite legend had always been the legend of Laputa, a huge floating kingdom high in the sky. No one knew if it was real or not, but I hoped it was.

It was said that the girl who was the original princess's rebirth (she apparently died fending off an enemy) had a birthmark exactly like mine. Weird huh? Anyway, that was why everyone teased me about it, no matter how many times I'd told them "_It's a birthmark bakas,_" verbatim with that exact intonation they never believed me. Bakas.

A sudden explosion jolted me out of my thoughts. I frowned. "What the hell?" I wondered aloud. I looked at Tsuki, whose fur refused to lie flat, hackles raised, teeth bared at the doorway. "Double what the hell." My birthmark burned under the belt.

Suddenly, a monster burst in. Okay, triple what the hell? I reached back for my sword, which Tsuki had with her for some reason when we first found eachother, only to remember it got me in trouble on the first day so I didn't carry it with me. Oh shit.

"Damn it Melody, move your fur!" Tsuki barked. When I didn't, she tackled my leg. "Damn it Melody, move your fur _this sarden instant!_"

I got the message and bolted out of the classroom and for my room. "I can make it, I can make it, I can make it." I chanted to myself, turning and skidding into my room. The monster decided to follow me, so I lunged for the sword Tsuki had with her when she first found me and held it in front of me. "No, I won't let you hurt me or my friends!"

I drew the blade. Tsuki looked at me, concerned. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked. "You know you haven't been able to use it recently!"

"So?" I shot back, preparing to slash at the monster. I used the bed as a springboard and propelled myself into the air. Descending, I managed to slash the monster's chest.

She sighed. "Then at least give me your sword. I'm going to give you the power to beat this stupid monster. I know where it comes from." She added at my disbelieving look. "Remember, it's thanks to me that you have it in the first place."

"Okay . . ." I said, unconvinced.

"Just do it!" She snapped.

"Hai hai." I sighed. I hated giving up my only available weapon, but if it would help me beat the thing, I was all for it. "Okay fine, do your thing Tsuki."

She chanted something in what I swore was Latin. When she finished, the blade seemed to glow. She pushed it towards me. "Here. Take it and call out 'Umbreon Sword Slash.'"

I sighed. "Well I'm still not too sure about this, but if it's my only chance to save my friends, then here goes everything. UMBREON SWORD SLASH!" I roared. Ribbons enveloped my body, forming a black skintight shirt that flared out at the elbows with yellow rings, much like an Umbreon's, just above the wrists, and a pair of combat worthy dark grey cargo pants. Black leather plate armor coated in what appeared to be yellow seals appeared out of nowhere and attached itself to me. Finally, my sword somehow strapped itself to my back. A black figure eight mask shaped mask with yellow highlights and a yellow dot on the nose rested over my eyes, hopefully concealing my identity from anyone who might stumble on the fight.

"Ha ha ha!" The stupid monster laughed, speaking for the first time. I hadn't even noticed that its shape was blurry before, but now I could clearly see it and realized that before I transformed, it was hard to see it resembled a lizard, or at least a reptile of some sort. I wasn't exactly sure what. "Do you really think you can beat me with that little toothpick of a sword? No one can beat me! I come from the mighty Laputa!" It eyed me interestedly. "Just who are you anyway? May as well know your name before I kill you."

Wait, Laputa? The legend was true? Were my dreams real?

I glared at the monster. My response was automatic. "I am the defender of the night, a master swordsman, and the leader of the ones protecting my home from stupid bastards like you, so prepare to meet your end! Game start!" I wasn't sure where the words came from.

"I don't care who you are, but you won't survive, even if you do suddenly have armor." The monster laughed. "I serve Queen Lucinda herself! You cannot beat me!"

I glared. "Oh we'll see about that." He blasted me with an energy beam of some sort. I held my sword in front of me, and the sword somehow deflected the beam.

Sakura came running. "I heard a noise, what's going on— wait, Melody? Is that you?"

I nodded. "Help me out, would you?"

"How?"

"Give me your glaive." Hikari instructed from her usual place beside Sakura. "I'll do to it what Tsuki did to Melody's sword." Unlike me, Sakura had one weapon that no one could disarm: her fists. She had monstrous strength and wasn't afraid to use it on anyone. Including me. She handed over her glaive and Hikari began chanting like Tsuki.

"You done?" Sakura demanded impatiently, not looking up from raining blows down on Monster-teme. "'Cause I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up."

As if to emphasize her point, the monster batted her away. Thankfully she missed Hikari and her glaive. "Okay, I'm done. Take this and call out 'Espeon Glaive Stab.'" Hikari instructed. "It's the only way you and Melody will save yourselves and eachother."

"Still not too sure about this, but I guess it's the only way to save me and Melody, so here goes everything. ESPEON GLAIVE STAB!" A bright light later, she wore lavender armor like mine, and the seals were red while mine were yellow. A red figure eight mask rested over her eyes.

I smiled. "Are you ready? I have an idea of what to do."

"Oh hell yes I'm ready!" Sakura cheered.

I grinned. "Great. Okay, here's what we're going to do." I explained my plan to her and raised my sword. "Darkness Slash!" A beam of pure darkness, like with Tsuki's Shadow Ball, erupted from my sword and wounded the monster, almost killing it. I was this close.

"Light Stab!" Sakura added. Rather like Hikari's Aura Sphere, blue light flooded from the tip of Sakura's glaive as she stabbed it the stupid nuisance in the chest. Finally, that finished the monster off. Weirdly enough, it just turned into a card. How weird. Still, I shook it off and sighed in relief. It really didn't seem like it, but that sure was a hard battle. Sure was strange.

"Glad that's over with." I breathed, slumping to the ground, completely exhausted. "Um, two questions. What happened, and how do we change back?"


	24. Sailor Scouts Of Yin And Yang

Sailor Scouts Of Yin And Yang  
Chapter One: You Get Just One Chance

_Kaylynn_

As soon as I got up and got dressed, I went downstairs to my mom's office, purposely avoiding my 'medicine' which was supposedly for my heart. Mom never told me exactly what it did, or why I had to take it after this long, but I knew I had to take it. Not by choice though, 'cause every single time I'd ever tried to _not_ take it, she caught me. Still don't know how.

Noting that she was on the phone, I leaned on the door frame outside her office. She was always on the phone for work. What she did, I didn't remember. I blamed the ADD.

"Have you taken your medicine?" Mom mouthed as she turned around in her chair, probably noting that I was up.

I nodded even though I hadn't. Mom rolled her eyes and pointed towards the counter. Grumbling curses under my breath, I went to take my medicine. "Guess it won't be today that I get away with not taking my medicine."

Mom came out of her office. "I'm not sure what it is you have against taking your medicine." She said, exasperated. We had this argument several times a day.

"I always feel so much more _alive_ when I'm not on it!" I complained.

"It's for your own good you know." She reminded.

"I'm afraid I don't see how." I told her.

She let out a strangled groan. "Remember, it keeps your heart healthy. I've told you this before, several times in fact, I know I have." She reminded me.

I sighed. "Whatever. Anyway, I wanted to ask if I could go to Pokémon Academy. I waited until I turned twelve like you said, and I haven't bugged you about it either, so I can I go? Please?"

"Yes—" She began before I cut her off.

"Yes!" I cheered.

She glared at me. "I wasn't finished." She scolded. "You know what I'm going to say next."

"'Interrupting people is rude.'" I recited. "Yes, yes."

"_Anyway,_ I was going to say that your uncle Shawn called me earlier and told me that Maddy is going to Pokémon Academy too. I want you to go with her." Mom told me.

I scowled. "You're making me go with her so she can babysit me." I snapped. "Seriously, I'm twelve years old now, I don't need my cousin to take care of me. Can't I just go with Reeve?"

"I never said you did." She replied calmly. "I would just prefer that you go with your cousin, for reasons that, no I will not tell you." She added when I opened my mouth. "As for your question, Reeve is going to Duel Academy with Wes this year. In fact, he just left this morning."

I sighed. "Terrific. Mom, can't you just trust me?" I whined. "Seriously, I told you this before, I'm twelve years old now, so can't you just trust me to go to school on my own?"

"I do trust you." She informed me.

I snorted, raising an eyebrow doubtfully. "Then _why_, do tell, will you not even let me walk to school by myself? At twelve years old, most kids can at least be trusted to walk _one block_ home from school, but not me." I reminded.

Mom opened her mouth, most likely to say something in retort, but closed it after a minute. She sighed. "Oh alright, you've got me Kaylynn. I don't trust you. Do you remember how I've told you that when you were born, you had a heart problem?"

I nodded. "Yeah, so?"

"Well, I called a woman named Jessamine Longbranch, who fixed your heart, but in the process made you a fighter for her organization the White Rose. You see, there's a sort of underground society that revolves around five different attributes, which I won't tell you, and the Red and White Roses would fight every year until recently for control of it." She began. "While someone very powerful came and disbanded the Red and White Roses, they're looking for fighters like you to start up the old ways. I don't want that to happen to you. I'll make you a deal: I'll sign your permission slip and let you go on your own, and if something exciting happens, tell me about it, and depending on how exciting it is, I'll tell you the full story of why I don't trust you, and who your father is. I know you've wanted to know who he is for as long as you've been able to wonder why he isn't here. But it has to be _really_ exciting, even more so than just getting your first Pokémon, unless it's something rare of course." She added. "Do we have a deal Kaylynn?"

I grinned. "Yes Mom, it's definitely a deal." I held out my hand. "Shake on it?"

Mom held out her own hand. I grasped it and shook it.

"It's a deal." She told me. "I'll get you a ticket for the ferry to Pokémon Academy and you can leave tomorrow. Now go upstairs and pack, I'll not have you leaving unprepared. Oh, and watch out for anyone with a red or white rose pin. They might be from the Roses."

I nodded. "Got it." I ran upstairs to pack, throwing everything and anything I thought I might need into storage scrolls, made by my cousin Wes who was a sealing genius and the biggest Naruto addict I knew, which I stuffed in my backpack.

It would be entirely too much of a hassle to pack several months' worth of clothing, at least, in a backpack, because a suitcase would be far too heavy and bulky to take on a bike, so I packed everything in sealing scrolls, which could easily fit in a backpack.

I could take a duffel bag, but I didn't have one that could easily be thrown over my shoulders and carried the same way as my backpack could.

"You done yet?" Mom called after about five minutes, just as I finished.

"Just finished, yeah." I called back, hurrying downstairs to grab some non-perishable food. It would take a couple days to get to the ferry station where the ferry for Pokémon Academy left from, and I sure as hell didn't intend to go hungry.

"Great. Grab the peanut butter and bread from the pantry and the jelly from the fridge." She ordered. "I know it doesn't taste as good when it's not cold, but at least it's something."

I sighed. "True, true." I grumbled. "I still don't like warm jelly or warm soda. It doesn't taste as good as it does when it's cold."

She rolled her eyes. "So then put some ice in your bike's basket. I know you had Wes put seals on it the last time he was here."

I smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, okay, that I did." I admitted. "We made a deal: I teach him a chakra control exercise if he does a few seals for me."

Mom smirked. "Nice. So are you all ready to go?"

I nodded. "Yup." True to her word, later on that day, Mom got me a ticket for the Pokémon Academy ferry, and made sure I was all packed up.

Then, the next morning, it was time for me to leave.

As I headed out the door, mounting my bike in a hurry, I could have sworn I heard Mom say "You'd better not blow this Kaylynn, because you're far too important to blow this one chance."


	25. Jurai Powered Alchemist Sailor Scout

Jurai Powered Alchemist Sailor Scout  
Chapter one: The Homunculi Finally Beaten

_Achika_

Ed, Al, Winry, Russell, Fletcher, and I were currently locked in battle with the final Homunculus: Envy. You see, Homunculi aren't immortal. They just have a bunch of lives, weird as that sounds, so the trick is to kill them a whole bunch of times until they don't have any more.

My weapon of choice: the Katana that was left on the doorstep with me shortly after I was born. Winry's weapon of choice: the dreaded Wrench of Doom. Ed's weapon of choice: his Automail blade. Al's weapon of choice: his armored fists and circle-less Alchemy. Russell's weapon of choice: his plant based Alchemy and various transmuted weapons. Fletcher's weapon of choice: again, plant based Alchemy, but also Alchemy enhanced fists.

Yeah, Al could do circle-less Alchemy now. I'm not sure how, but it might have had something to do with the last trip to the Gate of Truth, in which Al saw the same things Ed and I did when we originally were pulled in there after trying to bring Mom back to life.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment and allowed the Jurai energy to flow through my sword. In case you're wondering, Jurai is a power from another world. I don't know exactly what it is, but all I know is that using it can be dangerous. Gathering it and using it isn't the problem. It's dispelling it that's the real problem. I guess dispelling Jurai energy uses up life force or something. My grandmother told me something like that when she first began my lessons in my dreams, but the problem was, I was only six at the time and that wasn't long before we tried to bring Mom back to life, so the exact details of her explanation were kind of lost to time and the trauma that followed our failed transmutation (granted, we did create Homunculus, but we didn't actually bring Mom back to life, which was what we originally intended to do, so I considered it an epic failure— I wasn't really sure how Ed and Al thought about it).

After what seemed like forever, Ed finally managed to get a lucky blow in on him.

That slowed him down long enough for me to slit his throat, praying that this was his last life. He dropped to the ground and didn't get up again. I held my breath, and finally, when it became evident after nearly a minute that he wasn't getting back up ever again, I cheered.

"We did it!" I shouted. "We finally beat him! Now all we have to do is restore your body to normal Al. And then, well who knows what we can do?"

However, all of us including Winry were then pulled into the Gate of Truth.

Again, we were shown the same things we saw when Ed and I were originally pulled into the Gate, and then we came to the Gate itself.

"**We meet again, alchemists.**" It boomed. "**I have one more task for you before I allow you your original limbs back. However, for this task, I will grant the younger Elric brother most of his body back. But know this, alchemists: I will keep his limbs.**"

"What is this task, Gate-sama?" I asked. I figured that since it held the key to us getting our limbs back, the least I could do was be polite. A scene flashed before my eyes: a group of girls about my age maybe a year or so older fighting against a plant monster thing and losing, badly.

I could think of several ways to beat the thing, most involving alchemy, Jurai energy, my Katana which my grandmother told me was crafted especially to channel Jurai energy, or all three.

"**If you want your limbs back, go to that dimension and help those girls fight the plant monster. While you're at it, I want you to free Fiorie from Kessinian's control.**"

I blinked. "Kessinian?"

"**An evil flower. Yes Edward, an evil flower.**" It added at Ed's skeptical look. "**In that universe, sentient flowers that suck energy exist, and only the powers of the Sailor Scouts can defeat them. Luckily for you, alchemy is fairly similar to the powers they use, and thus is able to defeat the monsters they fight against.**"

"Why send _us?_" Ed demanded.

"**Because I have an interest in that dimension, and some of the monsters have started to find their way into this one. So far they've all been destroyed by the crossing, but I can't say for sure that that will continue to be the case. Besides, someone has to whip its defenders into shape. It hasn't occurred to them that if they just trained with their powers, they would be able to take out monsters much easier.**" It explained. "**And who better than you Elrics and your friends? Besides, someone has to keep you from going looking for trouble**."

"Hey!" Ed objected. "I don't go looking for trouble!"

I gave him a deadpan look. "Really? Then what do you call trying to bring Mom back to life?"

"**And that brings us to another point.**" The Gate interrupted. "**Should you do an exceptional job defending that world and training its primary defenders, I might be willing to give one of your parents back to you of you. However, it depends on how well you do training the other world's defenders and if you can free Fiorie from the Kessinian Blossom's grasp.**"

I nodded. "I accept Gate-sama." I announced. "I can't speak for my brothers or my friends and have no idea what they'll decide, but I'll do as you ask."

Ed and Al looked at eachother and seemed to come to a decision. "We'll do it." They decided.

Winry nodded. "And I'll go too."

Russell and Fletcher looked at eachother for a few minutes, seeming to have a silent conversation before Fletcher gave Russell the puppy eyes and he caved. "Fine," Russell grumbled. "Fine, Fletcher and I will go too."

I covered a snigger, wondering what it was about little brothers with puppy dog looks that made big brothers cave, if Ed and Al were any example.

If either Ed or Russell figured out what I was sniggering about, they didn't comment.

As it was, Ed did give me a sharp, annoyed look like he had a feeling he knew exactly what I was thinking, but didn't have any proof.

I just grinned and tried to look innocent.

"**Excellent.**" The Gate said. "**Are you ready, alchemists?**"

I drew a breath, made sure I still had my Katana, something my birth parents apparently forged for me, and stood up straight. "I'm ready."

"Us too." Ed, Winry, and Al announced in unison.

Russell huffed and crossed his arms. "I don't see why we have to go now." He complained. However, he quickly folded when his little brother gave him another one of his puppy dog looks, again making me wonder why big brothers caved to that look particular so fast.

"**Good. Do a good job alchemists.**" The Gate of Truth said before opening to a place that was much more developed than Amestris. "**Go through and you'll be in Juuban District, Tokyo, Japan, the home of the Sailor Scouts.**"

Without taking even one look back, I gripped my Katana and ran through to Tokyo, thus starting my mission, a mission I promised myself I was definitely _not_ going to fail.


	26. Jungle Fury Kitsune

Jungle Fury Kitsune  
Chapter One: To A Whole New World

_Naruto_

It was back to business as usual in Konoha after the Suna and Konoha alliance debacle that started with Matsuri, Gaara's one of very few people who didn't hate Gaara, and that meant I was getting beat up by yet another mob out for my blood.

"Doesn't this _just_ figure," I sneered bitterly. "I beat Gaara, I drag Baa-chan's ass back home, I attempt to drag the teme back 'cause he's the stupid villagers' precious _Last Uchiha_, free numerous countries and villages from a dictator and an ancient clan from a tyrant, and I _still_ have a stinking _mob_ out for my blood. And I didn't even pull a prank this time!"

Spotting a deserted alleyway, I quickly ducked into it, hoping the villagers wouldn't spot me and I could hide out there until they passed.

Unfortunately for me, they did.

I backed up slowly, my back to the wall, the gears in my brain already whirling a thousand miles an hour. Not as fast as Shikamaru's, but hopefully I could pull a miracle out of my ass.

I could use the Shadow Clone Jutsu to try to overwhelm them with sheer numbers, but if there were any Shinobi in the mob, and knowing my luck there were, it wouldn't work and my clones would just run into eachother or me and get in the way.

The Air Bullet and Great Breakthrough weren't meant for multiple opponents and only fired in one direction. I had the chakra for several, but I'd probably only be able to throw one or two before the Shinobi that were almost certain to be in the mob retaliated.

I could try the Rasengan, but that was better for shattering boulders than breaking up mobs.

In other words, I'm screwed.

I turned my eyes skyward. "Please, if there is a Kami-sama out there, please take me away from here, somewhere safe where the mob can't get me." I whispered but in my heart I knew there was no way to escape this time. This time there would be no miracle. This time, I was dead.

Resigned, I closed my eyes and let my guard down.

Then a scene flashed before my eyes: a girl, probably sixteen or seventeen, three or four years older than me, wearing a yellow spandex suit and matching yellow helmet, fighting an army of masked creatures and a poison using monster.

"If you want to escape the mob and live, run through the portal and help that girl." A deep masculine voice in my head commanded.

I didn't hesitate. I turned around and charged through the portal that had opened behind me.

Quickly, I made a Shadow Clone, charging up a Rasengan as we ran.

It was raining in this new world, wherever I was.

"Rasengan!" I bellowed, shoving the Rasengan into the monster's chest as my clone dispelled.

Apparently, my distraction was just what the yellow spandex suited girl and her red and blue suited companions needed to beat the monster and make the chameleon woman retreat using giant machines I was sure I head them call Zords. When the 'Megazord' as they called it disappeared and the other two turned to head back to their headquarters, the yellow suited girl fell over. It seemed she took more damage than she realized before I came along.

"You okay?" I asked as I helped her up. "It looked like that monster hit you pretty hard, and you just, you know, collapsed and stuff. I hope you're not hurt."

She shook her head. "Don't worry, I'm fine." She looked me in the eyes, and for a brief moment, I thought I could see hers behind the visor. "But who are you and why did you help me? Most people would _run screaming_ from a monster, not charge at it and attack it."

I snorted, trying not to scowl bitterly. "And I'm not most people." I informed her, letting a small scowl creep onto my face. "And more people would run screaming from what I have locked inside of me than that monster thing, whatever it was. 'Cause inside me is a _real_ monster."

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand." She told me.

I bit back a sigh and put on a fake smile as usual. "Just, forget about it. It's nothing."

"You know," She commented, not looking convinced. "Your eyes look _way_ too old for a . . . how old are you? Thirteen years old?"

I nodded. "Yeah, fourteen as of October tenth."

"I thought so. Your eyes look _way_ too old for a thirteen year old." She told me. "What did you mean 'what you have locked inside of you?' Is it a bad secret or something?"

A secret, the Kyuubi? Hardly. "Not exactly. I told you, just forget about it. You're better off not knowing. You'd either do what the villagers do and want to destroy me, or run screaming. Well, that or you'd see me as a weapon, or potentially unstable." I told her as her red and blue spandex suited companions returned, realizing she hadn't followed them home.

"Where are you from?" The blue clad boy asked.

"Konohagakure no sato." I answered. "Or the village hidden in the leaves, often just called Konoha for short. It's in the Land of Fire. I'm guessing you haven't heard of it."

I could see the gears in the red suited boy's brain whirling. "I think I read about it once, at the Academy. It's where one of the Masters is from. It's one of the Five Great Villages entitled to a Kage, although another village had a Kage even though they weren't one of the Five Great Villages. Konoha was the only one who considered its soldiers, ninjas, people rather than weapons." He said thoughtfully.

I snorted. "I don't suppose it actually mentioned the horrible way they treated someone who should have been considered a hero for what happened?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, no."

I sighed. "Of course."

"We should take you back to RJ." The blue boy decided. "He'll know what to do with you."

I looked at the yellow girl. "Who's RJ?"

"Our boss." She explained. "He runs Jungle Karma Pizza, which is also our headquarters."

I titled my head ever so slightly to the right. "What does pizza taste like? I've never had any before." I admitted, staring at the ground.

"You've never had _pizza?_" Blue asked as if that were the most surprising thing he'd ever head.

I shook my head. "No."

"Are your parents some sort of health food junkies or something?" He asked curiously.

I stiffened, glaring. "_My parents_ are dead." I snapped. "They both died the day I was born." Tears long suppressed now flowed freely from my eyes and mingled with the pouring rain, but for once in my life I didn't try to stop them.

Instead, I just covered my eyes with my arm and ran.

"Wait!" One of them called after me, but I was already long gone.


End file.
